The Bangladesh chapter of Transparency International yesterday said about Tk108 crore in the prime minister’s fund for Rana Plaza victims had remained unused.
“It has been two years since the Rana Plaza collapse. But still Tk108 crore out of Tk127 crore deposited in the PM’s fund for the victims is yet to be disbursed,” TIB Trustee Board Chairperson Sultana Kamal said.
“We received complaints that many of the victims have not been given compensation while many others did not get adequate amount of money as compensation. The money meant for the victims is shown as the PM’s fund,” she said at a press conference at Midas Centre in the capital.
She demanded punishment of those responsible for the deadly building collapse, caused due to negligence.
Over 1,138 workers, mostly women, were killed while over 2,500 others injured in one of the world’s deadliest disasters on April 24, 2013.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said: “Rana Plaza collapse is an example of how people sacrifice their lives because of corruption. Even after two years, an appropriate compensation mechanism is yet to be adopted to distribute the money among the victims and their families.”
He said the wage of garment workers was not sufficient while the garment owners’ body BGMEA on different occasions take benefits from the government showing excuses.
Iftekhar also proposed that the government establishes a separate ministry to ensure good governance in the RMG sector in the long-run.
The TIB demanded that the fund authorities make public the list of victims who got compensation and the amount already distributed.
At the programme, the Berlin-based corruption watchdog also disclosed findings of a follow-up research on the steps made by the government and other organisations in the last one year and the implementation process.
The findings show that $15m out of the $21m collected by the Rana Plaza Donor’s Fund have been distributed among the victims in phases.
The study finds that the government and other stakeholders had partially implemented the initiatives they had taken in the previous years.
It says there have been no work towards establishing a separate ministry, formulating rules for trade unions and federations, and raising a workers’ welfare fund.
Around 220 small and medium factories were closed last year for not meeting requirements with 1-1.5 lakh workers losing job, TIB says.
