At 0855 AM 10/28/01 -0500, you wrote

To Editor, Round Up ( roundup@nmsu.edu )

Dear Mr. Grammer

I was extremely surprised to read the Executive Director of the FLA's, Mr. Sam Brown's immediate and very detailed October 15 response to Professor David Boje's October 8 article in your college newspaper on "Pistol Pete and Sweatshop Apparel in the New Mexico State Bookstore". Mr. Brown's response however does contain gross inaccuracies. In the interests of fairness, your newspaper should report these.

For example, Mr. Brown states "The FLA currently has approved nine monitoring organizations for FLA-accreditation -none of which are consulting or accounting firms."  This statement is not true and one does not have to go very far to disprove it. The FLA website indicates that the FLA has approved twelve monitors (not nine as in Mr. Brown's statement); at least four of these approved monitors for the FLA are private consulting firms

a) Global Standards (Vietnam); b) Intertek Testing Services (ITS)

c) LIFT Standards (Bangladesh); d) Merchandise Testing Labs (MTL).

The top managers of these consulting firms do not appear "independent" and indeed appear to serve the interests of the firms they are monitoring. For example, the Executive Director of Global Standards, Ms. Chau Nguyen, is a former employee of Adidas with which she has had a very successful career -- in compliance issues and monitoring!

Sincerely,

Usha C. V. Haley

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Professor Usha C. V. Haley

Associate Professor, Department of Management

College of Business Administration

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville