DARAA (Zaman Al-Wasl)- The fuel crisis in southern Daraa province is deepening and getting worse day by day as no fuel shipments have been delivered since last March and the majority of residents received only 50 liters of subsidized heating allowances during the winter season.
This was accompanied by the expansion of rampant corruption in the state-run Petroleum Storage and Distribution Company (SADCOB) into the open, as officials began to openly demand royalties from the owners of gas stations, and vowed to prevent the arrival of any liter without paying a bribe.
Daraa residents treated as second class
Private sources from inside and outside the Syrian regime's fuel corporation, confirmed to Zaman al-Wasl that the trio of corruption represented by "Ahmed Suweidan, Naim al-Jabr, and Abdo Khasharfa" are the ones who control the flow of fuel distribution operations to petrol stations in order to serve a larger circle whose roots go back to the Assad family that has been on the chests of the Syrians for decades.
The sources revealed that Suwaidan, a member of the People’s Assembly, imposes royalties on petrol station owners in order to obtain fuel allocations on the pretext that he is paying money to influential figures in the capital, Damascus, in order to send fuel to Daraa.
Suweidan emphasized in more than one place that the regime’s government considers Daraa's residents as second class", and that is why he is forced to pay bribes to agree to send fuel.
According to the sources, Suwaidan's tasks have become to collect and coordinate bribes and blackmail the owners of the stations.
In the event of non-payment, he crosses out the name of the station from the distribution schedule, in agreement with the director of the Daraa branch of SADCOB, Naim Al-Jabr, and the deputy governor, Abdo Khasharfa, who plays the role of the functional governor by removing the names of the stations that refrain from paying and depriving them of their fuel allocations.
The name of Suwaidan reappeared, as he was not satisfied with obtaining bribes and royalties, but decided to enter the field of hydrocarbons legally and thus corruption under the cover of "the law".
Suwaidan rented a gas station, and during the day and night it became a holder of enormous advantages. When the owner of the station learned that it was not permissible to rent it to a public official such as Suwaidan, he went to the director of SADCOB in Daraa to terminate the contract, as the latter refused that request for the mutual benefit between him and Suweidan.
The Corruption circle did not stop at the trio of corruption in the province, but rather included a member of the People’s Assembly, Farouk Al-Hammadi, who is influential in the Assad family, who explicitly declared that he, Suwaidan and Ammar al-Assad, stand behind Naim al-Jabr and no one can hold him accountable.
The sources stressed that the largest share of Daraa's fuel cake goes to Ammar al-Assad, who has become a partner in many gas stations, bragging that he is the reason for delivering fuel to Daraa.
(Reporting by Karam Abdulrahman)
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