section_path: Policies/Administrative reforms
section_name: Administrative reforms
paragraph_text: Administrative reforms
  
  The transitional government began implementing administrative reforms immediately after taking control of Damascus. Mohammad Yasser Ghazal, a technocrat from the Syrian Salvation Government, was appointed to oversee the restructuring of the Damascus governorate, with plans to serve as city council president. The new administration began reviewing departmental functions and addressing issues of bureaucratic inefficiency inherited from the previous government.
  
  Initial reforms focused on streamlining government services and addressing corruption. The transitional authorities found numerous inefficient departments and positions, including redundant administrative divisions. The new government emphasized the digitization of services, citing the example of ID processing, which they had already implemented in Idlib. They also began addressing issues of phantom jobs and systemic corruption that had developed under the previous administration, where government employees had been receiving approximately $25 per month in salary; which are to be increased to SSG government minimum wages of $100.
  
  The administrative transition included meetings between outgoing department heads and new officials to understand and reform existing bureaucratic structures. Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir convened meetings between SSG ministers and former regime officials to facilitate the transfer of power to the new caretaker government. The transitional government includes numerous senior officials from Idlib governorate, which Reuters said raised concerns about inclusiveness from among opposition sources. Policemen from Idlib were brought to Damascus to direct traffic, while on 13 December the transitional government's Military Operations Command declared a curfew in Homs Governorate.
  
  In late January 2025, five interim ministers interviewed by Reuters introduced plans to 'shrink the state', by firing a third of all public sector workers while sending others on leave while their employment status is being 're-evaluated'. The remaining state employees were told that their salaries would be increased by 400%.