Less than a year ago, the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad fell and a new administration assumed the reins of power in Syria. While this administration was seeking to turn the page on decades of tyranny, it found itself facing a heavy legacy of corruption and the plundering of the country’s capabilities. Will you succeed in stopping the chain of corruption?
Recently, investigations conducted by supervisory authorities in Syria revealed serious violations against the government sector, at the hands of senior former officials who were accused of misuse of power, bribery, and wasting public money.
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The Central Authority for Oversight and Inspection (an official body) estimated – in its report – the extent of the damage to public funds due to corruption at about half a billion US dollars, including strategic sectors such as energy, mineral wealth, and services.
The investigations, based on documents and evidence, are being conducted at a time when the new Syrian authorities are trying to dismantle the corruption system of the previous regime, trace the assets of its officials, and recover the Assad regime’s funds, which – according to a US State Department report – amount to between one and two billion dollars.
However, surprising statements aroused the interest of the Syrian street, during which President Ahmed Al-Sharaa revealed suspicions of “illicit enrichment” among leaders, officials and figures close to the new authority, whom he met in an informal meeting in the city of Idlib in the north of the country.
Reuters quoted private sources as saying that Al-Sharaa warned those gathered against “the temptations of power,” asking “whether they had succumbed to it so quickly?”
According to the source, President Al-Sharaa explained the need to change the investment culture established by the previous regime, stressing his intolerance of any suspicion of corruption among state employees.
Fears of being dragged and diverted
Observers saw in this step a clear indication of the existence of cases of unjustified enrichment and suspicions of corruption, which prompted the president to warn his companions – the sons of the revolution – against being drawn into the temptation of power, exploiting a position, or obtaining gains illegally, while the new authority is betting on a state based on administrative discipline and the principle of clean hands, free of corruption, whose institutions and agencies are subject to oversight and accountability.
The Syrian Penal Code punishes crimes of bribery, embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, and exploitation of an office position for private benefit with imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Economic expert Abdel Sattar Dimashqiya warned of the consequences of turning limited cases of remarkable enrichment, within a circle close to the authorities, into a snowball that increases in size in light of the political, economic and security challenges that Syria faces, and the preoccupation with the external file, through which Al-Sharaa is trying to restore Syria’s regional and international role, after decades of marginalization.
He explained – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – that the country is still suffering from the repercussions of corruption left by the previous regime over 6 decades of exploiting power and profiting at the expense of the people, which means that it is unable to bear any new toll in this file, which might undermine the citizen’s confidence in the principles and directions of the new government.
While the economic and banking expert, Dr. Ibrahim Nafie Qushji, confirmed that “the measures that affected figures close to the authorities brought about a qualitative shift in the path of combating corruption, reflecting a real political will to build a state in which no one is above the law, a state of institutions, not a state of individuals.”
He told Al Jazeera Net, “The success of this trend not only guarantees economic stability, but also establishes a new political legitimacy, based on justice and accountability, and gives Syria a historic opportunity to move from a state of rentierism and corruption, to a state of production and citizenship.”
Heavy legacy
Following the fall of the Assad regime last December, the new regime took over a state described as “collapsed and corrupted on every side.”
The Minister of Economy and Industry, Nidal Al-Shaar, described what he saw on the ground upon his arrival in Damascus as a “shocking scene.”
He pointed out – during a special meeting organized by the Syrian-Turkish Business Council in Istanbul in August – that the Syria that the new government took over was “completely destroyed,” stressing that the scale of the disaster exceeded estimates.
In a strong indication of the state’s seriousness in closing this file, the Central Financial Supervision Agency (a body affiliated with the Presidency of the Republic) formed more than 80 specialized investigation committees to address files involving former officials in the government of the former regime, as well as businessmen who had strong relations with the ousted president.
The official SANA news agency quoted the deputy head of the agency as saying that the damage and losses caused by corruption to public funds were enormous, which placed on the agency a great responsibility to uncover the facts and hold those involved accountable.
The Financial Audit Authority exercises its supervisory role directly over ministries, public administrations, and bodies of an administrative nature, in addition to companies and public institutions of an economic nature, and entities that receive subsidies from the state or whose capital the state contributes to.
It also audits revenues, public expenditures, grants, gifts, and local and international donations, reviews and audits the state’s overall public account, and verifies that resources are used efficiently without waste, extravagance, or loss.
Researcher Muhammad Al-Bikai believes that the success of the institutional nature of any new system of public administration, in the post-conflict phase, depends on the approach followed by the government in dealing with the previous legacy, especially what relates to corruption and nepotism.
He explained in a study on “Public Service Institutions after the Fall of the Assad Regime” that corruption was one of the main tools that the regime used to implement its policies and achieve its goals.
He pointed out that the lack of sufficient funding to appease the ruling elites and the groups whose loyalty he sought to gain, made corruption in its various forms an effective tool for linking senior civil and military state employees to the regime, through common interests.
According to the researcher, this resulted in an administrative culture based on easy laxity in public work, failure to preserve state resources, and the spread and palatability of corruption.
In turn, the economist Qushji supports the point of view of the researcher Al-Bikai, as he believes that “the transformation of public institutions into tools for extortion and plunder, and the absence of effective oversight in favor of networks of interests, in which the political was intertwined with the economic, and the partisan with the security, formed an integrated structure of corruption that linked the joints of the state to the artery of private benefit.”
He added to Al Jazeera Net that “cases of corruption were not just individual deviations, but rather a systematic policy adopted by the former authority as a tool to control and stabilize the pillars of its rule.”
He pointed out that this reality produced a general culture that weakened confidence in the law and judicial bodies, especially in light of the lack of separation of powers and the dominance of one party over appointments and senior positions.
Corruption threatens the transitional period
Evaluations by the Global Network Against Organized Crime and Corruption (OCCRP), which chose Assad as Person of the Year for 2024 for his role in organized crime and corruption, indicate that the ousted president earned billions of dollars from drug production, arms trade, human smuggling, and antiquities theft.
It warned – in a report – that the rampant corruption during his reign still threatens the transitional phase in Syria.
The network quoted a study prepared by the Syrian Legal and Political Development Programme, based in London, that “the failure of the current government led by President Sharaa to confront deep-rooted economic crimes may jeopardize efforts to achieve long-term justice and accountability.”
The study urged the new Syrian government to recover assets illegally seized by Assad-era officials and their partners, calling for international cooperation in tracking and recovering these assets.
The network commented, saying: “Corruption has always enabled its perpetrators to evade justice, as happened in other post-authoritarian countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Chile,” and therefore, “failure to act will constitute a disservice to the victims and will lead to the perpetuation of impunity, by allowing the perpetrators to keep their ill-gotten gains.”
Despite the positive moves taken by the new Syrian authorities to combat corruption and put in place guarantees that it will not return, the question about the effectiveness of these moves remains the focus of wide discussions and deliberations.
Economist Ahmed Salama stressed that confronting illicit enrichment, as an episode of corruption, requires radical reforms that guarantee sound institutional performance in the various sectors of the state.
He pointed out that the reactive approach instead of the preventive approach would weaken good governance, as confronting corruption still requires a public environment dominated by transparency, trust, and the rule of law and justice.
A national integrity system
In his interview with Al Jazeera Net, he called for: Building a national integrity system, based on:
- Support law enforcement authorities to prevent abuse of power and enhance the independence of the judiciary.
- Ensuring full transparency in the decision-making process.
- Expanding the space for diverse participation, empowering citizens to hold the government accountable, and protecting whistleblowers of corruption.
- The private sector – like the public – should be subject to integrity standards, and anti-corruption standards should be strengthened to include issues of taxes, tax evasion and money laundering.
He believed that combating corruption in Syria, with a huge legacy of the previous regime’s files, is still a reactive case, not a preventive one. According to his opinion, it is not enough to simply increase investigations and arrest the corrupt to address this black hole. Rather, a comprehensive approach must be followed in construction and legislative, legal and economic reforms, to fill the weak gaps in the work sectors, both official and private, to prevent the corruption from leaking out of them.
In a related context, Transparency International confirms that reporting violations is the most effective way to detect corruption and illegal practices and prevent them early.
The organization believes that disclosing information about corruption or any other violations committed to the relevant authorities would save millions of dollars in public funds, and would also spare the country economic problems with profound repercussions such as tax evasion and money laundering.
In her analysis of “the role of whistleblowers,” she attributed: Reasons for the low number of reports to:
- Fear of legal, financial and reputational consequences.
- Believing that reporting will not make any difference.
- Uncertainty about how, where, and to whom to report.
The organization called on countries to enact laws that allow citizens and employees to report corruption, abuse of power, theft of public money, and illicit enrichment, without fear or prosecution.
It also called for the enactment of legislation that protects the identity of whistleblowers and grants them legal immunity to ensure that they are not prosecuted on charges of leaking information.