opposition_territory – Syria Report

The Syrian Salvation Government’s Ministry of Local Administration and Services issued Decision No. 506 on September 15, which ordered the merger of the Aleppo Engineers’ Syndicate branch with its counterpart in Idlib. This unified entity will be named the Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate, headquartered in the Engineers’ Syndicate building on Al-Qusour Street in Idlib city. The Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) is affiliated with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist group, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, which controls vast areas in Idlib and some parts of Aleppo’s countryside.

The Free Engineers’ Syndicate was established in 2014 in opposition-controlled areas, with branches in both Idlib and Aleppo. In 2020, the SSG mandated the restructuring of the Idlib branch, renaming it the Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate in Idlib. The Aleppo branch of the Free Engineers’ Syndicate continues to operate in areas controlled by the opposition-run Syrian Interim Government (SIG) in northern Aleppo without any change. Notably, theAleppo Engineers’ Syndicate branch in Aleppo is an assembly of engineers from areas controlled by the SSG in Aleppo’s countryside, who had separated from their original branch about a year ago to form their own grouping, colloquially referred to as “Al-Dana branch” due to its location in Al-Dana city north of Idlib. This branch is unrelated to the Free Engineers’ Syndicate branch in Aleppo.

Following the earthquake on February 6, 2023, the SSG’s Ministry of Local Administration and Services began downsizing the role of the Engineers’ Syndicate. They blamed the syndicate for the catastrophic results of the earthquake in areas under their control. This accusation seems unfounded since it is not within the syndicate’s jurisdiction, as a professional body, to prevent unlicensed construction or the emergence of informal settlements, which were most affected by the quake.

The ministry had earlier issued Decision No. 307 on May 22, establishing the Directorate of Engineering Affairs and assigning it multiple tasks previously undertaken by the syndicate. These include auditing engineering plans related to administrative transactions, overseeing engineering projects and studies, licensing engineers, classifying engineering offices and companies, and endorsing the engineering teams overseeing all engineering studies in Idlib.

The ministry formed a joint committee with the Engineers’ Syndicate to draft the body’s new bylaws, clarifying its responsibilities, structure, and relationship with the Directorate of Engineering Affairs. These bylaws have not been finalised yet. Despite the absence of these bylaws, the newly restructured syndicate’s roles seem limited to registering engineers and overseeing the operations of engineering firms, according to Said Al-Ashqar, advisor to the Minister of Local Administration and Services.

According to the ministry’s recent Decision No. 506, Engineer Malik Haj Ali was appointed as the head of the syndicate, and six engineers were assigned as members of the new syndicate council. Engineer Hassan Othman was charged to chair the syndicate’s internal audit committee, consisting of three members.

Multiple sources from the Idlib branch of the Engineers’ Syndicate told The Syria Report that the branch effectively ceased being an independent professional entity after Decision No. 307. Its remaining capabilities are now limited, with some sources indicating that the SSG has relegated the syndicate’s engineers to mere processors of engineering transactions at the Directorate of Engineering Affairs in the ministry.

The head of the Free Engineers’ Syndicate branch in Aleppo, Engineer Khaled Al-Othman, told The Syria Report that syndicates are civil entities and should remain outside the formal governmental sphere. He said he was surprised by the dissolution of an elected and legitimate professional body and its replacement by an official governmental entity. Rather, syndicates serve as protective umbrellas for professionals and are supposed to be independent technical and supervisory bodies.

The Ministry of Local Administration and Services in the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in Idlib is attempting to regulate the construction sector after the widespread destruction caused by the earthquake on February 6, 2023. The Ministry is working to subject new construction operations to the Syrian building code and its annex related to earthquakes, imposing strict administrative and technical oversight mechanisms and increasing fees and taxes on construction work.

The Ministry has transferred the powers of the Engineers Syndicate to the Directorate of Engineering Affairs in the Ministry, which has become responsible for reviewing the engineering studies for any new construction, as part of the permit process. The Directorate is responsible for rejecting engineering studies that do not comply with construction conditions, Ministry advisor and engineer Said Al-Ashqar told The Syria Report’s correspondent.

The Ministry has set five different criteria determining the final building permit fees, including location, surrounding streets, regulatory nature, type of establishment and general description of the building. However, the Ministry has not yet officially published the fee values. Meanwhile, our correspondent quoted local sources as saying that the new fees for residential building permits reach up to USD 3 per square metre of construction.

The Ministry has prohibited permits for common-ownership lands and required land partitioning before permitting construction on such properties.

According to Mr Ashqar, the technical phases of building homes and public facilities begin with an architectural and structural engineering study, submitted by a supervising engineer to the competent municipality to obtain a permit. The Directorate of Engineering Affairs then audits and certifies the study, returning it to the municipality, which in turn grants the building permit. Afterwards, the municipality and the supervising engineer oversee all stages of implementation.

Throughout all these stages, adherence to this building code system is necessary. This system consists of administrative decisions issued by administrative units that determine the necessary conditions for building, repairing and demolishing structures within the limits of the administrative unit. Each administrative unit issues its own specific regulation, in line with the zoning plan and the nature of the area.

The Ministry has divided the building code system into two parts: regulation within the zoning plan and regulation outside it. In both cases, certain conditions must be observed, the most important of which are adherence to the minimum land area to be built on, the number of storeys, the area of the facades and compliance with the minimum storey height.

Building regulations outside the zoning plans are classified into three sections: first, a protection area for the detailed zoning plan from any informal urban expansion, where building is prohibited.

Second are agricultural areas outside the zoning plan, where building is allowed on land smaller than 200 square metres. If the land area is less than 4,000 square metres, construction is allowed with a two-storey system, with the maximum area for one storey at 100 square metres. If the land area exceeds 4,000 square metres, the area of one floor should be 160 square metres. In all cases, a facade for the building must be left at a distance of 10 metres at the front, and five metres for the other sides.

The third type of area outside of zoning plans are the rocky mountainous areas. Ministry of Local Administration Decision No. 370, issued on August 21, 2023, stipulates that the minimum area of the partition to be built upon in such zones is 200 square metres, and the width of the front of one partition is 12 square metres, with facades of three metres on all sides. The regulation added details about the building conditions in this case, such as the number of allowable storeys if the property overlooks a street according to its width, the total height of the storeys, and the facades. Commercial and industrial construction, various investment projects, and residential suburbs in rocky mountainous regions are exempted from this building regulation system to be considered separately.

The Ministry also issued Circular No. 14 on June 1, treating all properties under construction as existing buildings, meaning their owners must obtain a new construction permit.

Authorities allowed legal settlement for law-violating buildings inside or outside of zoning plans, as well as the obtainment of official construction permits. The main settlement condition is that a committee consisting of three engineers must submit a structural safety report about the building to the Directorate of Technical Services in the Ministry.

Even earlier than that, on May 17, 2023, the Ministry issued Circular No. 8, specifying the required documents to complete the administrative transactions related to permits and settlements as follows: a real estate registration statement proving ownership, along with a copy of the identity of the land or building owner, a survey plan with a statement of neighbouring properties, a topographical statement, and a general site drawing.

Circular No. 9, also issued on May 17, outlined the administrative procedures for permits and settlement, whereby the reception office in the municipality receives the request, ensures the accuracy and completeness of the documents, and forwards the request to the technical department in the central municipality for verification. This department also conducts a preliminary technical inspection and transfers it to the Directorate of Technical Services in the Ministry of Local Administration and Services.

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