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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
SCOALA GIMNAZIALA INVATATOR MIU STANA COMUNA BRAZI CUI: 29032671 2025 1,830,272 733,084 16 40.1% 6.5× 620,082
COMUNA DRAJNA CUI: 2843973 2023 2,552,081 724,962 8 28.4% 6.9× 619,449
COMUNA SOCODOR CUI: 3519330 2025 3,207,662 817,424 16 25.5% 4.1× 619,381
CASA JUDETEANA DE PENSII CUI: 13589340 2025 1,262,883 693,948 22 55.0% 8.9× 615,977
INSTITUTUL DE STAT PENTRU TESTAREA SI INREGISTRAREA SOIURILOR CUI: 4192880 2018 3,439,998 886,396 20 25.8% 3.3× 615,806
COMUNA ADAMUS CUI: 4436844 2025 2,525,161 771,194 6 30.5% 5.0× 615,289
CENTRUL DE FORMARE SI PERFECTIONARE A POLITISTILOR NICOLAE GOLESCU SLATINA CUI: 32636821 2025 1,460,085 704,659 16 48.3% 7.8× 614,513
COMUNA MOIECIU CUI: 4443485 2022 2,606,779 861,410 12 33.0% 3.5× 613,635
COMUNA TORTOMAN CUI: 4514926 2024 3,275,048 788,982 16 24.1% 4.5× 613,067
COLEGIUL NATIONAL PEDAGOGIC GHEORGHE LAZAR CUI: 4779036 2025 3,243,143 812,693 23 25.1% 4.1× 612,460
COMUNA MOTCA CUI: 4541351 2020 3,001,469 867,517 9 28.9% 3.4× 612,104
MUZEUL NATIONAL AL SATULUI DIMITRIE GUSTI CUI: 4754848 2025 2,317,748 754,822 98 32.6% 5.3× 611,723
JUDETUL CLUJ CUI: 4288110 2023 6,223,051 868,748 13 14.0% 3.4× 611,463
DIRECTIA GENERALA DE ASISTENTA SOCIALA SI PROTECTIE A COPILULUI SECTOR 4 CUI: 17226151 2025 4,015,677 857,871 24 21.4% 3.5× 609,941
DIRECTIA ADMINISTRARE INFRASTRUCTURA SPORTIVA BRASOV CUI: 21446554 2022 3,193,034 912,731 27 28.6% 3.0× 609,232
UM 02534 CUI: 4540054 2025 2,313,373 751,371 13 32.5% 5.3× 608,542
COMUNA DAROVA CUI: 4483820 2025 2,674,824 773,433 6 28.9% 4.7× 608,288
COMPANIA DE INVESTITII SI DEZVOLTARE SECTOR 1 SA CUI: 40311936 2025 2,177,702 742,145 7 34.1% 5.5× 607,693
COMUNA NICSENI CUI: 3372122 2024 4,523,455 850,087 8 18.8% 3.5× 607,115
COMUNA PLOSCA CUI: 4652783 2022 2,614,910 854,700 10 32.7% 3.4× 606,152
COMUNA SANDOMINIC CUI: 4245879 2020 2,795,535 843,765 44 30.2% 3.6× 605,876
APA TARNAVEI MARI SA CUI: 19502679 2024 5,541,032 902,511 47 16.3% 3.0× 604,881
UM 0466 BUCURESTI CUI: 4204208 2019 2,182,971 768,940 64 35.2% 4.6× 603,120
FILARMONICA DE STAT DINU LIPATTI CUI: 3896968 2022 1,898,631 783,522 50 41.3% 4.3× 603,056
DIRECTIA GENERALA DE ASISTENTA SOCIALA SI PROTECTIA COPILULUI HARGHITA CUI: 9798918 2019 1,012,552 679,453 294 67.1% 8.8× 602,539

351-375 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