In the run-up to the New Year, practically all local authorities allocate millions, and sometimes tens of millions of tenge, for festive city decorations, which inevitably raises questions from the public in light of the President’s call to save budget funds.
According to Informburo.kz, in the Mangystau region, the Palace alone spent over 9 million tenge on decorating premises and installing Christmas trees. In Kostanay, schools are spending similar amounts on sewing New Year costumes for students and decorating buildings.
Astana tops the list in terms of expenditure scale: around 700 million tenge was allocated for city decorations. In Shymkent, 80 million was allocated for these purposes, in Aktau — 76 million, and in Uralsk — 28 million tenge.
Public activists believe that such significant costs are not always justified. They suggest saving money by using existing materials and showing creativity in updating old decorations.
It is worth recalling that in October last year, the akimat of the capital’s Yesil district allocated 848 million tenge for services to prepare the city for festive events. A year earlier, a similar procurement was carried out, on which the Yesil district akimat spent 194 million tenge.