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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
COMUNA ADUNATI CUI: 2843248 2021 2,821,599 1,161,701 31 41.2% 4.4× 900,294
COMUNA MATCA CUI: 4412225 2024 5,834,527 1,210,015 14 20.7% 3.9× 896,620
REGIA AUTONOMA ADMINISTRATIA FLUVIALA A DUNARII DE JOS GALATI CUI: 1644670 2025 6,835,175 1,317,294 53 19.3% 3.1× 895,287
SPITALUL MUNICIPAL CUI: 4568152 2020 5,207,657 1,336,083 60 25.7% 3.0× 892,933
COMUNA VORNICENI CUI: 3643914 2025 5,467,535 1,228,756 9 22.5% 3.6× 891,188
SOCIETATEA NATIONALA DE TRANSPORT FEROVIAR DE CALATORI - CFR - CALATORI SA CUI: 11054545 2023 9,535,583 1,284,756 290 13.5% 3.3× 890,519
COMUNA CUPSENI CUI: 3694969 2022 2,981,599 1,171,856 14 39.3% 4.1× 888,454
COMPANIA NATIONALA DE CAI FERATE CFR SA BUCURESTI SUCURSALA REGIONALA DE CAI FERATE TIMISOARA CUI: 15662430 2020 2,889,105 1,133,819 7 39.2% 4.6× 887,968
INSTITUTUL PENTRU TEHNOLOGII AVANSATE CUI: 4204259 2018 2,858,525 1,112,485 40 38.9% 5.0× 887,633
COMPLEXUL MULTIFUNCTIONAL SFANDREI CUI: 39558429 2018 2,517,641 1,077,526 19 42.8% 5.4× 879,488
COMUNA COMLOSU MARE CUI: 4483854 2024 2,775,740 1,028,372 8 37.1% 6.9× 879,276
COMUNA FLORESTI - STOENESTI CUI: 5123799 2020 3,410,969 1,167,496 24 34.2% 4.0× 877,236
MUNICIPIUL SIGHETU MARMATIEI CUI: 3695174 2022 3,271,059 1,185,809 25 36.3% 3.8× 874,893
COMUNA TODIRESTI CUI: 4326922 2022 3,809,895 1,234,436 19 32.4% 3.4× 872,304
UNITATEA MILITARA 01026 CUI: 4193184 2023 2,907,079 986,827 33 34.0% 8.2× 866,637
COMUNA PAULESTI CUI: 3897025 2025 2,904,567 1,044,730 9 36.0% 5.8× 865,401
COMUNA GIRISU DE CRIS CUI: 4883966 2025 3,186,902 1,062,075 28 33.3% 5.4× 865,314
COMUNA DRAJNA CUI: 2843973 2022 2,901,888 1,140,037 15 39.3% 4.1× 864,211
ORAS TANDAREI CUI: 4364888 2025 6,600,329 1,271,291 7 19.3% 3.1× 863,784
ORAS MURGENI CUI: 3337710 2020 3,762,748 1,183,812 40 31.5% 3.7× 863,617
UNITATEA MILITARA 02460 CUI: 4406096 2023 4,318,470 1,034,368 28 24.0% 5.8× 855,826
UNIVERSITATEA AUREL VLAICU ARAD CUI: 3519500 2023 5,895,310 1,099,412 59 18.7% 4.5× 855,677
COMUNA COPALNIC MANASTUR CUI: 3695115 2019 2,303,051 1,027,466 26 44.6% 5.9× 852,525
COMUNA BERGHIN CUI: 4562257 2024 2,841,302 1,002,526 5 35.3% 6.6× 849,909
COMUNA TINCA CUI: 4794605 2024 7,629,298 1,250,767 19 16.4% 3.1× 840,968

151-175 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