Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Damascus, SANA – The People’s Assembly on Monday passed a bill on allocating 50% of job vacancies at state establishments to relatives of martyrs, in addition to a bill amending a law on judicial fees and expenses and a bill terminating the contract for establishing a company for manufacturing communications equipment in partnership with Iraq.
Justice Minister Najm al-Ahmad said the bill on allocating job vacancies is part of the government’s efforts to ensure that martyrs’ families lead good lives, while the bill on adjusting fees came about due to the high costs of implementing previous plans which required raising the fees slightly.
Al-Ahmad said that the Ministry is working to computerize judicial and administrative work as part of its reform project, in addition to repairing judicial facilities damaged by terrorism and establishing new courts and facilities.
As for the third bill, the termination of the contract came about due to the stalling of the project and the decision to dissolve the partnership between the Syrian and Iraqi governments.
During the session, Electricity Minister Imad Khamis addressed the state of the electric power sector, saying that the total losses of this sector due to terrorism have reached SYP 400 billion, and 170 workers were killed while carrying out their duties.
Khamis said that due to the decreasing amount of fuel arriving to power stations, 34 generator arrays out of 54 have been turned off, causing a considerable drop in electricity production which is at around 2,000 megawatts, while Syria’s needs are currently around 6,000 megawatts, which necessitated power rationing across the country.
He underlined the difficulties affecting the Ministry’s work, one of which is the fact that many people aren’t paying their electricity bills, causing unprecedented debts and lack of funds, while another is infringements on the power grid and illegal drawing of power, with high loads due to the use of electricity for heating and cooking causing other issues.
Khamis said that terrorists have been attacking the power grid in Aleppo province methodically for over a year, with repair teams being unable to repair power lines due to terrorist activities, leaving one power line to provide power to Aleppo city.
In turn, Petroleum Minister Sleiman al-Abbas said that recent fuel shortages are caused by the irregular arrival of tankers to Syrian harbors, and that the Ministry is exerting great efforts to provide petroleum byproduct, adding that it is expected that 70% of the market’s needs will be provided in January.
For his part, Administrative Development Minister Hassan al-Nouri reviewed the Ministry’s work, saying that its administrative infrastructure has been completed and its workforce has been set and appointed, with one of its upcoming projects being an evaluation of the state of administration in the public sector.
Hazem Sabbagh
