This situation has been attributed to the purchases of non-essential goods by present manager (procurement) Dileepa Sidath as well as his predecessor Jayakody Seneviratne.

Jayakody alone is responsible for incurring a loss of more than Rs. 30 million to the institution through her purchases of non-essential goods.

A CWE employee told Sri Lanka Mirror on condition of anonymity that the present manager was doing this in a more complex manner.

Ex-chairman Kiran Atapattu had started a process under which suppliers sent goods straight to the outlets, instead of sending them to the Maligawatte warehouse for distribution.

That had been a success, but now, distribution has resumed from the Maligawatte warehouse, which is sending extra as well as non-essential goods.

Outlet managers are not courageous enough to reject those goods.

If a rejection is made very rarely, the driver of the lorry that transported the goods would give a call to manager Sidath, and the manager will have to accept the lot.

However, CWE outlets are presently experiencing a short supply of essential goods.