More frustration is roiling the ranks of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association over the leadership of the South Asian nation’s apex trade group, which has been under administratorship since the interim-government-ordered dissolution of its board of directors in October over allegations of past vote-rigging and concerns about the future direction of the organization.
On Tuesday, some 200 factory owners turned up at the BGMEA conference hall in Chittagong to criticize the administrator’s appointment and demand immediate elections. Insiders describe an overwhelming sense of disgruntlement that Md. Anwar Hossain, a public servant who is not a businessman, has been overstepping his legal authority by implementing reforms and other actions beyond what’s necessary for day-to-day operations. Neither Hossain nor the support committee that has been tasked with assisting him responded to a request for comment.
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Ershad Ullah, managing director of Mark Fashion Wear and former first president of the BGMEA, questioned if Hossain’s job was to function as a “reformer” that implemented the “agenda of some interested quarters” or to hand over the reins of the BGMEA to a “free and fairly” elected committee within 120 days as he had promised.
“His power or responsibility is to conduct the general daily work of BGMEA,” he said in a letter that was circulated to members on Thursday by SM Nurul Haque, the Shagore Garments managing director and former BGMEA first vice president who chaired the meeting. “But in reality, he is working beyond his scope, which is against the law.”
Ullah said that Hossain had hired two external law firms, functioning outside of the BGMEA’s own legal representation, because he “knew he would be conducting activities beyond his power and would have to fight legal battles for it, [i.e.,] wasting members’ money,” for instance by requiring suppliers to renew their factory licenses before applying for the renewal of their membership. “Members did not give him this power in any special general meeting,” he said. “There is no precedent for this in BGMEA’s history.”
But Faisal Samad, managing director of Savartex Group and a former BGMEA vice president said there is nothing non-compliant about how the administrator is handling the transition. Membership reviews are part of the due process, he said. And because Hossain’s support committee is also made up of former BGMEA board members, anything he does is with their consent.
“As far as immediate elections are concerned, they can only be held 90 days after the membership criteria has been checked and confirmed,” Samad told Sourcing Journal. “This would be in case of even in normal BGMEA elections. BGMEA elections are following due procedure and will be held in accordance with the rules. BGMEA elections need to be compliant, which means that membership vetting must be done properly as per the constitution and as per the requirements of any trade organization.”
Still, the disgruntled faction insists that only a factory owner should be heading the BGMEA and representing its members. One manufacturer, who asked not to be named because of potential backlash, said that Hossain was “increasing his own portfolio” by meeting with diplomats and other international representatives.
“He got this position, so he should respect the position and do what he’s supposed to do,” the person told Sourcing Journal, adding that a similar meeting could be forthcoming in the capital of Dhaka. “He should not do anything other than what he’s supposed to do.”
That “work is stagnant and problems are increasing” for Bangladesh’s tentpole industry, which is responsible for nearly 85 percent of the country’s exports, is another problem, said Mohammed Abdus Salam, managing director of Asian Apparel and a former first vice president of the BGMEA. Bangladesh is still in the grip of political turmoil that began after student-led protests over quotas in government jobs last year exploded into a broader democratic reckoning that unseated former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Factories continue to face liquidity challenges amid increasing manufacturing costs, intermittent port disruptions and ongoing worker unrest over unpaid and insufficient wages.
“These problems are all of ours [and] we need elected representatives to run the BGMEA to solve them; we all need to be united on this issue,” Salam said in Haque’s letter. “We don’t know why an administrator was appointed. The administrator appointed assistants, but we have become helpless. We can’t run factories. This can’t go on. We can’t let it go on.”
