The United NationsA Tuesday report revealed that the Syrian government has procured contracts with companies connected to people sanctioned for human right abuses by the government.
Syria’s uprising-turned civil war that started in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. A large portion of the population is dependent on humanitarian assistance, with more than 80% living in poverty.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and military support RussiaIran and Hezbollah have been able to reclaim large parts of the country. Syria is still in a spiraling economic crisis, with a recent cholera epidemic that has infected around 20,000 people.
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The non-profit Observatory of Political and Economic Networks and non-governmental organization Syrian Legal Development Program analyzed the top 100 U.N. suppliers in Syria in 2019 and 2020. It found that nearly half of all the contracts were with suppliers who were involved in human rights violations or could have profited.
Nearly 25% of U.N. contracts were procured during those two years by companies owned or partly owned by people sanctioned by the United States. United KingdomThe European Union for Human Right Abuses is valued at $68 million. Fadi Saqr is close to Assad. He heads the National Defense Forces of Damascus. This pro-government militia executed dozens blindfolded prisoners and buried them in a mass burial near Damascus.
Millions of dollars have been paid to the United Nations for contracts that were linked to individuals who are backed by the Syrian government.
(AP Photo)
Eyad Hamid (a senior researcher at SLDP) stated that U.N. agencies’ processes do not reflect full due diligence. They also depend on cross-checking the legal ownership of a business instead of the ultimate beneficiary ownership.
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Advocate groups accuse the Syrian government and its affiliates of withholding aid or siphoning it from families in opposition-held regions or manipulating exchange rates to increase state coffers.
“We know that aid cannot always be delivered in Syria at no cost. … “The question for me is how can we minimize that cost,” Karam Shaar (Program Manager, Syria) at the Observatory of Political and Economic NetworksThe AP was informed. “I think it’s now well-established that the cost of doing business through the U.N. in regime-held Syria is by far the highest compared to aid provided by other organizations in other controlled areas.”
Shaar states that aid can be channeled through U.N. agencies in certain cases, but that donor countries should divert funds to international NGOs that adhere to unilateral sanctions, particularly by the U.S.
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“While the U.N. says they don’t abide by unilateral sanctions, NGOs are accountable to the countries they’re based in,” Shaar explained.
Last week, the Associated Press published the results from an investigation that showed that the U.N. World Health OrganizationDamascus representative of Syria mismanaged millions in dollars and lavished government officials with gifts including computers and gold coins.
