Focus now on essential commodities
by Suresh PERERA - From The Sunday Island
Amidst the interdiction of the procurement manageress of Lanka Sathosa last week, trade officials were aghast to discover more consignments of slow and non-moving commodities valued at over Rs. 300 million stagnating in shelves of this government institution’s outlets island-wide.
The officer on the mat has been charge-sheeted as inquiries have revealed that bulk stocks had been ‘blindly ordered’ during the former regime and dumped when their shelf life was on the verge of expiry, the officials said.
Investigations on the directive of Lanka Sathosa Chairman, Kiran Atapattu, have revealed that tailor-made bulk orders running into millions of rupees had been procured despite the availability of surplus stocks.
The procurement manageress, it has now come to light, had made these purchases during the previous administration at a cost of Rs. 304 million, but the commodities had remained stagnant and removed to the warehouse from time to time.
The Sunday Island recently revealed startling details of a big stock of non-essential commodities beyond their expiry dates worth around Rs. 150 million dumped in a Lanka Sathosa warehouse at Maligawatte.
Trade officials said that absolutely unnecessary goods such as pampers, expensive cosmetics, imported soap, toiletries, beauty care products, fabric conditioners, umbrellas, virgin coconut oil, baby swipes, green tea sachets, umbrellas and imported confectionery items had been stocked in outlets in rural areas.
Who would want to buy garbage bags, diabetic jam, Vaseline, expensive shaving blades, cosmetics and a costly brand of imported toothpaste for sensitive teeth in a rural farming area?, they asked.
"Even kithul treacle had been sent to outlets in the Badulla district, which obviously didn’t sell because the region is famous for its quality treacle", they noted. "Bottled Goraka paste had also been stocked up when the fresh produce was available in abundance".
"This shows the extent of irrational procurement at tremendous cost to the government", the officials noted.
Lanka Sathosa officers had been placing repeated orders, merely to fill shelves in the outlets, and as the demand was low, stocks remained intact, they noted.
As most of these commodities had not been sold, they had been transported back to Colombo and dumped in the warehouse. This had eaten into the revenue of the institution, they pointed out.
It is suspected that certain procurement officers had received hefty kickbacks and gifts to purchase what’s not required and later dump them as "unsold commodities", they asserted.
Suppliers had shown disinterest in recalling unsold commodities as full payment had been made within two weeks and unlike in private supermarkets, there was no compulsion to take back stocks within a 90-day period, they explained.
Allegations that some suppliers had been paid a commission of Rs. 100,000 per bulk order worth millions of rupees have surfaced, they pointed out. "We are also aware of reports that expensive gifts were delivered to the homes of certain officers".
"It appears that at Lanka Sathosa, it was not the customer who was king, but the supplier", they quipped. "Under the new management, it’s now the other way about".
These officers had not shown the same eagerness to stock up essential foodstuffs such as big onions, potatoes, sugar, dhal, green gram, cowpea, canned fish and sprats, which were in demand as no kickbacks were forthcoming, they said.
This defeated the whole purpose of establishing Lanka Sathosa as the core objective was to sell essential foodstuffs to consumers at reasonable prices, they pointed out. "This remains the institution’s top priority and the focus is now on essential foodstuffs rather than imported goods".
"Even locally produced powdered milk food will top the list of priorities without boosting imported brands", they said. "Customers have appreciated these efforts".
Under the direction of the new Chairman, procurement has now been streamlined with a filtering system installed. The respective Managers of the institution’s 305 outlets can forward their orders, but only essential and fast-moving commodities in demand will be supplied under a screening mechanism, the officials said.
Lanka Sathosa employees have now called upon the government to step in to conduct a probe as millions of rupees have gone down the drain due to corrupt practices, they noted.
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