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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 MALAIA CUI: 2989686 2024 3,215,709 894,404 8 27.8% 5.2× 721,676
MUNICIPIUL MIERCUREA-CIUC CUI: 4245747 2021 2,983,170 997,567 9 33.4% 3.6× 721,191
COMUNA CIOCHINA CUI: 4231830 2024 4,154,357 944,008 10 22.7% 4.2× 720,862
SPITAL JUDETEAN DE URGENTA MIERCUREA CIUC CUI: 4245305 2023 6,249,022 978,177 50 15.7% 3.8× 719,819
COMUNA SASCUT CUI: 4353161 2025 3,332,962 920,405 11 27.6% 4.5× 714,626
COMUNA GARBOU CUI: 4291654 2021 1,671,433 869,420 10 52.0% 5.6× 714,570
COMUNA MUSETESTI CUI: 4898754 2022 1,316,461 838,314 14 63.7% 6.7× 713,184
COMUNA LIESTI CUI: 3264562 2025 4,474,580 988,004 13 22.1% 3.6× 711,741
COMUNA RECI CUI: 4404311 2023 3,349,792 848,399 10 25.3% 6.1× 709,906
COMUNA GHIDIGENI CUI: 3655897 2021 2,651,232 952,688 20 35.9% 3.9× 707,064
MUNICIPIUL BISTRITA CUI: 4347569 2024 4,762,369 962,529 18 20.2% 3.8× 706,724
COMUNA CABESTI CUI: 5518519 2022 2,427,914 937,407 8 38.6% 4.1× 706,633
COMUNA MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU CUI: 4428078 2025 2,345,697 851,319 9 36.3% 5.9× 706,495
ORAS TANDAREI CUI: 4364888 2021 2,689,744 954,596 14 35.5% 3.8× 705,404
COMUNA CUCA CUI: 3127000 2022 2,611,047 950,509 16 36.4% 3.8× 702,328
INSTITUTUL DE STIINTE SPATIALE-FILIALA INFLPR CUI: 28521106 2018 1,710,602 833,453 17 48.7% 6.2× 698,897
SCOALA GIMNAZIALA NR 161 CUI: 32167296 2025 3,845,194 935,961 10 24.3% 3.9× 698,557
COMUNA POIANA SIBIULUI CUI: 4307009 2021 2,419,925 921,978 11 38.1% 4.1× 697,784
UNIVERSITATEA NATIONALA DE EDUCATIE FIZICA SI SPORT DIN BUCURESTI CUI: 4267192 2018 3,280,731 953,186 90 29.1% 3.7× 695,124
COMUNA VATA DE JOS CUI: 4521389 2023 7,149,480 990,094 6 13.9% 3.4× 694,507
COMUNA SIMONESTI CUI: 4367710 2019 2,188,073 859,886 40 39.3% 5.2× 693,679
COMUNA SARU DORNEI CUI: 4326884 2025 3,279,746 896,109 5 27.3% 4.4× 693,616
SERVICIUL PUBLIC JUDETEAN SALVAMONT MARAMURES CUI: 40172226 2022 1,897,611 871,413 12 45.9% 4.8× 691,044
COMUNA TURENI CUI: 4378840 2021 2,040,017 879,922 16 43.1% 4.7× 690,924
COMUNA VARTESCOIU CUI: 4298130 2022 2,453,711 923,535 22 37.6% 4.0× 690,309

251-275 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