Skip to content

Medium risk #08 Year-end

Year-end spending

Authorities that spend far more in the last three weeks of December than the rest of the country.

Every authority buys in December, and the share of those three weeks varies from year to year: 9.5% of the money in 2022, 4.1% in 2023. So the indicator compares each authority with the national average for the same year: it is flagged when it puts at least three times as much into the window. The table is ordered by the amount spent above normal.

Flagged cases

3,152

Spending above normal

1.06 Bn.

Average vs. national

5.1×

Flagged authorities by year

Years marked * are not fully covered by the data: 2018.

The data does not cover the whole window in 2023, so that year figures are a floor. For 2018, the first year of the dataset, the annual total is grossed up to a full year.

What the flagged windows were spent on

The 12 largest CPV groups by value; the other 271 are added into a single tile. The amount is what was spent in the flagged windows, not the amount above normal, which cannot be split by code.

National share of the 10-31 December window, by year

How it is computed

Computed on every direct purchase from 2018 to today.

  1. Direct purchases are taken by finalisation date.
  2. They are grouped by authority and year. A year counts only if the data covers all of its December, so the current year is left out.
  3. The first year in the data starts in April, so its total is estimated for a full year from the nearby complete years. The correction makes the total larger, so it can only remove a case, never create one.
  4. Spending from 10–31 December is divided by the yearly total: that is the authority's share.
  5. The same share is computed for the whole country in the same year. It varies a lot (9.5% in 2022, 4.1% in 2023), which is why no fixed threshold is used.
  6. The authority's share is divided by the national one. The amount above normal is the window spending minus what the authority would have spent at the national share.
  7. Authority-years at least 3 times the national share are flagged, with at least 5 purchases in the window and at least 100,000 RON above normal, among those that spent over 200,000 RON in the year.

Thresholds

  • Window: 10–31 December, by the direct purchase's finalisation date
  • Minimum multiple of the national share: 3×
  • Minimum spending above normal: 100,000 RON
  • Minimum number of purchases in the window: 5
  • Minimum yearly direct-purchase budget: 200,000 RON

Direct purchases only. Tenders are left out: they are prepared months ahead, so a December signature is not a last-minute decision. Actual payments are not in the data.

Year-end spending has a legitimate side: the budget closes on 31 December and unspent money is lost. The indicator does not say a purchase is unlawful, only that its timing departs from the national pattern. A year in which everyone spent late produces no flags.

The full explanation, on the methodology page

Contracting authority Year Total spend in the year Spend 10-31 December Purchases in the window December share Vs. national Above normal
UNITATE ADMINISTRATIV TERITORIALA - COMUNA PALTINIS CUI: 3571559 2020 2,857,483 1,003,891 24 35.1% 4.1× 760,731
ORAS ODOBESTI CUI: 4297827 2025 5,732,000 1,114,144 48 19.4% 3.2× 760,248
COMUNA OSICA DE SUS CUI: 4716801 2025 2,090,119 888,862 6 42.5% 6.9× 759,817
COMPLEXUL MULTIFUNCTIONAL SFANDREI CUI: 39558429 2019 2,643,533 958,767 15 36.3% 4.8× 757,963
COMUNA CARPINIS CUI: 5286800 2018 3,897,575 1,063,286 18 27.3% 3.5× 756,703
ORASUL INTORSURA BUZAULUI CUI: 4404370 2019 3,494,123 1,020,511 31 29.2% 3.8× 755,096
UNITATEA MILITARA 02655 VLADENI CUI: 39754190 2022 2,660,891 1,002,476 16 37.7% 4.0× 749,557
MUZEUL ETNOGRAFIC AL TRANSILVANIEI CUI: 4847572 2025 1,515,422 843,101 10 55.6% 9.0× 749,538
COMUNA VORONA CUI: 3672049 2022 3,278,666 1,060,524 30 32.4% 3.4× 748,885
COMUNA BRAZI CUI: 2845290 2020 3,994,469 1,088,781 27 27.3% 3.2× 748,868
MUNICIPIUL TARNAVENI CUI: 4323535 2025 3,683,710 976,122 33 26.5% 4.3× 748,688
COMUNA VINDEREI CUI: 3394104 2023 3,958,694 911,897 5 23.0% 5.6× 748,230
COMUNA SACASENI CUI: 3896720 2022 2,115,285 947,776 24 44.8% 4.7× 746,717
COMUNA VALCAU DE JOS CUI: 4291930 2024 3,786,181 946,284 14 25.0% 4.7× 742,914
COMUNA SITA BUZAULUI CUI: 4404460 2022 3,725,634 1,095,105 34 29.4% 3.1× 740,982
COMUNA NUSFALAU CUI: 4291921 2025 3,867,468 976,889 19 25.3% 4.1× 738,110
COMUNA SEACA CUI: 4568632 2020 1,113,440 829,089 13 74.5% 8.8× 734,340
COMUNA GRIVITA CUI: 3394074 2022 2,717,280 989,660 26 36.4% 3.8× 731,381
CRESA PITESTI CUI: 46517499 2025 1,403,685 817,828 52 58.3% 9.4× 731,164
SPITALUL ORASENESC SINNICOLAUL MARE CUI: 4483765 2024 4,956,510 995,268 63 20.1% 3.7× 729,035
COMUNA ALEXANDRU CEL BUN CUI: 2613036 2022 2,444,386 959,541 8 39.3% 4.1× 727,201
DIRECTIA GENERALA DE ASISTENTA SOCIALA SI PROTECTIA COPILULUI HARGHITA CUI: 9798918 2018 1,662,738 856,815 294 51.5% 6.6× 726,024
ORAS LIVADA CUI: 3896852 2022 2,866,649 998,154 37 34.8% 3.7× 725,678
INSPECTORATUL SCOLAR JUDETEAN CONSTANTA CUI: 4618145 2020 1,964,740 889,920 24 45.3% 5.3× 722,729
LICEUL ORTODOX EPISCOP ROMAN CIOROGARIU MUNICIPIUL ORADEA CUI: 22622667 2024 1,242,167 788,634 25 63.5% 11.8× 721,912

226-250 of 3152 results

Rows per page: 25 50 100
Contracting authority
The authority that spent. One row is one authority in one year.
Year
The year the purchases were finalised.
Total spend in the year
Everything the authority spent through direct purchases that year. For the first year in the data it is estimated for a full year.
Spend 10-31 December
How much of that money was spent between 10 and 31 December.
Purchases in the window
How many direct purchases were finalised in the window. Below five nothing is flagged: it may be a single large purchase.
December share
Window spending as a percentage of the whole year. Read it with the next column, because the national average changes each year.
Vs. national
How many times the authority's share exceeds the national one in the same year. 1× means the same as the country; flagged from 3×.
Above normal
Window spending minus what the authority would have spent at the national share. The table is ordered by this column.
Opens the authority's direct purchases from that window.

The same data, through the API

Every figure on this page comes from the public API, through the endpoints below. The parameters each one takes are in the documentation; each needs an access key.

  • /api/v1/reference/years
  • /api/v1/red-flags/sindromul-decembrie
  • /api/v1/red-flags/overview/years
  • /api/v1/red-flags/sindromul-decembrie/distribution
  • /api/v1/red-flags/sindromul-decembrie/cpv-spend

Open data and API