Fuel, salaries, and services... Details of procedures to rationalize government spending in Syria

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Measures to rationalize government spending in Syria raise urgent questions about their direct impact on salaries, services and projects, especially following the decision to reduce fuel allocations for government vehicles and machinery by 30%.

These measures aim to control unnecessary administrative and operational expenses, and rearrange spending priorities, in parallel with protecting salaries and basic services and increasing the efficiency of use of public resources.

The government clarifications answer the most prominent questions raised, starting with defining the scope of rationalization and exceptions, all the way to the mechanism for dealing with savings and following up on the implementation of procedures on the ground, according to the Syrian News Agency, SANA.

The announced measures do not aim to reduce resources allocated to basic services or enter into a comprehensive “austerity policy.” The measures focus on unnecessary expenditures that can be rationalized, and which can be postponed or dispensed with without affecting the work of institutions or the continuation of services provided to citizens.

These expenses include travel, missions, unnecessary official missions, hospitality, conferences, publications, and unnecessary communications, in addition to stopping the purchase or replacement of furniture, office equipment, and cars designated for administrative purposes except when the need is proven.

Gasoline and diesel allocations are scheduled to be reduced by 30% for cars and government vehicles, and it does not target mass transportation or emergency service vehicles, including ambulances and firefighters, in addition to cars and vehicles whose allocations do not exceed 70 liters per month.

Public authorities have also been tasked with integrating and organizing official movements as much as possible to reduce consumption, with the Ministry of Energy monitoring implementation and submitting periodic reports on consumption.

Expenditure rationalization measures do not include salaries, wages, and entitlements of state workers, as these expenses have been kept outside the scope of the reduction. Rationalization, in return, aims to secure savings on items that can be postponed or reduced, which helps to manage available resources efficiently and maintain the ability of public agencies to fulfill their basic obligations.

Freezing some investment expenditures does not mean stopping government projects in general, as the projects will be reviewed and classified according to their priority and actual need at the current stage, as priority projects will continue, especially those related to basic services and protecting infrastructure or that achieve a financial return or contribute to the provision of foreign exchange, while projects whose postponement does not affect public services or economic activity can be postponed.

As for projects whose feasibility is not commensurate with their cost at the current stage, new expenditures for them will be stopped and their uncontracted appropriations will be recovered in accordance with the rules.

The procedures prevent dividing projects or transferring their items with the aim of circumventing rationalization procedures, making the rearrangement of priorities based on the nature and feasibility of the project, and not on changing the form of the accreditation or the method of its inclusion.

Operating expenses related to vital sectors were excluded, primarily health, education, water, energy, security and public safety, in order to maintain the continuity of basic services.

Projects that have reached advanced stages of completion, projects funded by external grants, and projects with direct economic returns proven by documents will also continue.

A mechanism has been identified to deal with the savings resulting from stopping or reducing some expenses, as public entities may not use these savings to arrange new expenses or obligations, or make transfers to cover non-priority expenses.

The General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic issued a communication to ministries and public agencies, based on a proposal from the Ministry of Finance, which included taking a set of measures to control and rationalize public spending, in line with the requirements of enhancing financial discipline and the efficient use of public resources under the current circumstances.