Islamabad to Spend Rs1 Billion on City Decoration Despite Austerity Push
The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) has approved a Rs1 billion city decoration plan to spend the money on decorating the federal capital over two years, a move that lands awkwardly alongside the federal government’s own strict austerity drive.
The Rs1 billion city decoration plan covers city decoration, outdoor branding and event management for welcoming national and international dignitaries and marking national days. The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) of the MCI handles these activities in Islamabad, particularly during national events and visits by foreign heads of state.
How the Rs1 billion city decoration plan will work
The CDA’s Finance Wing has allocated Rs1 billion to the DMA for year-round spending on these services. The CDA provides funds to the MCI on a loan basis and meets its financial requirements through its Finance Wing.
In the past, civic authorities hired private contractors separately for each event, a process that often caused delays. This time a rate-running contract has been floated for the procurement of branding and event management services under a least-cost-based selection procedure.
The procurement will follow a single-stage, two-envelope process. Technical bids will be evaluated first, while financial bids will only be opened for firms that qualify technically.
MCI Deputy Director General Tariq Latif said Rs600 million was spent on city branding and related services last year. He said the allocation had been increased to Rs1 billion because of inflation and the expected number of international events in the country.
According to Latif, the lowest bidder will be responsible for outdoor branding, event management and related services. The contract will remain valid for two years and may be extended for another year. He added that completing the procurement process would improve transparency and help avoid unnecessary delays.
The austerity contrast
The spending plan comes weeks after the federal government notified sweeping austerity and fuel conservation measures for Islamabad itself. Those measures ordered shops and markets to close by 9pm, restricted wedding functions to a single dish, banned foreign travel for officials for three months, cut government vehicle fuel allocations by half and prohibited the purchase of vehicles and durable goods.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced the strict austerity measures amid shrinking fiscal space. The MCI’s decoration budget sits uneasily with that message, since it nearly doubles last year’s Rs600 million branding spend at a time when the centre is cutting its own non-essential expenditure.
Civic finances in the capital are already under scrutiny. An Auditor General report earlier flagged financial mismanagement in the CDA and MCI, including unauthorised use of funds, missing financial statements and weak reconciliation of revenue receipts. Against that backdrop, the two-year rate-running contract at least puts the decoration spending through a formal competitive process instead of event-by-event hiring.
What is the Rs1 billion city decoration plan?
It is a two-year rate-running contract floated by Islamabad’s MCI for city decoration, outdoor branding and event management, extendable by a third year.
Who is paying for it?
The CDA’s Finance Wing has allocated the Rs1 billion to the MCI’s Directorate of Municipal Administration, with the CDA funding MCI requirements on a loan basis.
Why was last year’s budget not enough?
MCI Deputy DG Tariq Latif cited inflation and the expected number of international events in the country for raising the allocation from Rs600 million to Rs1 billion.
