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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
UNITATEA MILITARA NR 02638 CUI: 4265965 2022 2,541,796 1,081,782 133 42.6% 4.5× 840,183
COMUNA PLOPANA CUI: 4591520 2024 1,641,075 925,561 5 56.4% 10.5× 837,413
COMUNA PIELESTI CUI: 4553992 2022 3,057,258 1,126,812 12 36.9% 3.9× 836,218
COMUNA BATARCI CUI: 3897165 2022 2,716,796 1,092,425 20 40.2% 4.2× 834,192
COMUNA TAGA CUI: 4288055 2025 2,270,870 973,900 6 42.9% 7.0× 833,695
COMUNA VALEA SALCIEI CUI: 3662460 2018 1,783,334 970,538 11 54.4% 6.9× 830,261
MUNICIPIUL GHERLA CUI: 4349071 2025 6,300,938 1,212,468 79 19.2% 3.1× 823,445
EURO APAVOL SA CUI: 27778056 2019 3,793,761 1,111,330 11 29.3% 3.9× 823,154
CENTRUL CULTURAL DRAGAN MUNTEAN DEVA CUI: 4374814 2022 2,071,555 1,017,063 26 49.1% 5.2× 820,161
ORAS BORSA CUI: 3627544 2025 4,663,449 1,107,000 6 23.7% 3.8× 819,076
COMPLEXUL MULTIFUNCTIONAL SFANDREI CUI: 39558429 2022 1,447,615 947,465 21 65.5% 6.9× 809,869
COMUNA SIMIAN CUI: 4550988 2020 4,476,237 1,189,508 64 26.6% 3.1× 808,598
COMUNA LAZARENI CUI: 4660751 2022 2,279,179 1,023,071 13 44.9% 4.7× 806,434
COMUNA GIRISU DE CRIS CUI: 4883966 2022 3,958,956 1,182,352 12 29.9% 3.1× 806,052
COMUNA SCORTENI CUI: 2843302 2020 1,419,537 925,118 27 65.2% 7.7× 804,321
COMUNA MAGIRESTI CUI: 4353099 2023 1,845,664 880,578 14 47.7% 11.5× 804,271
UNITATEA MILITARA NR02238 CHITILA CUI: 9435289 2023 2,052,824 887,047 23 43.2% 10.5× 802,175
COMUNA LAPUS CUI: 3627218 2019 1,490,732 913,744 5 61.3% 8.1× 800,507
MUNICIPIUL MORENI CUI: 4344597 2024 6,500,653 1,149,081 14 17.7% 3.3× 799,906
CENTRUL EDUCATIV BUZIAS CUI: 16643452 2022 1,481,014 939,345 29 63.4% 6.7× 798,574
COMUNA TURCOAIA CUI: 4793936 2025 1,785,738 908,263 11 50.9% 8.2× 798,011
COMUNA STALPENI CUI: 4122558 2025 3,492,116 1,013,038 10 29.0% 4.7× 797,433
COMUNA CURCANI CUI: 3796926 2025 2,038,004 922,296 22 45.3% 7.3× 796,469
ORAS OCNELE MARI CUI: 2540899 2022 2,853,219 1,064,414 14 37.3% 3.9× 793,214
COMUNA HORODNICENI CUI: 4326833 2023 3,904,860 952,371 5 24.4% 5.9× 790,929

176-200 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