Re structuring the grain procurement storage and selling by the government

While referring to financial figures and observation throughout the last few years it has been noticed that
following institutions have been operated with a speedy decline both in the productivity as well as the
sustainability in the market arena. However these organizations have a literal vision and objectives but
still struggling to accomplish the targets. More over it has been noticed that most Organizations are
unable to manage their daily operational expenses without the Government support. In other words
prevailing loss would have become the major challenge faced by these Organizations. Despite to this
situation it has become a major burden to the government treasury to apportion considerable amount of
funds to manage the over head expenses than investing on development. The mere attention of this report
is to depict the indentified consequences and few of the remedial actions to be taken in order to mitigate
the recurring issues.
Availability of infrastructure for grain procurement entails transportation, milling and selling. However
this has become a one sole process under one roof but in practice these major components are handled by
four different state institutions which are not interconnected. Those institutions are CWE, Lanka Sathosa,
PMB and Food Department.
Annual PMB is to operate the GPS (Guaranteed price scheme) levels relating to purchasing of paddy. In
general terms procurement of paddy would have happen

twice a year and store the same in their own

stores which own by the food department.

CWE has two modernized paddy mills which idling with sufficient storage capacity to mill 30 metric tons
of paddy per day. Further to above the organization enriches with good condition of Lorries and the fleet
entails 85 units at the moment for the purpose of transportation. However it has brought to our noticed
that these assets would have not been utilized with its full capacity. Similarly throughout several
investigations done on the above matter it has proven that current work in progress should need to be fine
tune in order to enhance the productivity.
Further Lanka Sathosa Limited entails 310 outlets covering most parts of the country which served 10000
metric tons of rice per Month Island wide. This is equivalent to 16000 metric tons of paddy. Consequently
Lanka Sathosa Limited purchases considerable amount of their current requirement of rise from the open
market, even though the CWE has its full capacity to provide sufficient service to Lanka Sathosa Limited.
Food Department is also been a part of food procurement system which is not highly incorporated to
furnish their support in full capacity. However this organization enrich with a large number of island wide
storage capacity with the huge number of man power.

Adding to that CWE and Food Department carries excess staffs that are in permanent cadre also not
willing to accept the retrenchment scheme which has been implemented. In order to obtain a permanent
solution for most of the ramification it is recommended to incorporate these activities under one umbrella
where all agencies under one command would be a successful way in order to unutilize the fixed assets
and the man power. Further to that poor coordinating and indentified bottlenecks in the operation system
will be able to manage within the system.