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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 ALEXANDRU COSTESCU CUI: 20745728 2023 4,705,520 796,363 19 16.9% 4.1× 601,819
COMUNA DRAGANESTI VLASCA CUI: 5296560 2020 2,448,280 809,815 35 33.1% 3.9× 601,476
COMUNA BACIA CUI: 4374270 2025 3,002,318 786,749 8 26.2% 4.2× 601,384
COMUNA BICAZ-CHEI CUI: 2614406 2021 2,710,268 852,293 25 31.5% 3.4× 601,200
COMUNA LAZARENI CUI: 4660751 2025 3,625,151 823,865 8 22.7% 3.7× 600,046
COMUNA CHILIA VECHE CUI: 4508738 2024 1,841,076 697,692 8 37.9% 7.1× 598,801
COMUNA DOBA CUI: 3963838 2020 1,524,072 727,287 14 47.7% 5.6× 597,595
DIRECTIA DE ADMINISTRARE A DOMENIULUI PUBLIC-SLOBOZIA CUI: 7326960 2025 4,662,729 885,096 23 19.0% 3.1× 597,217
COMUNA DRAGANESTI CUI: 2845257 2021 2,694,953 846,599 6 31.4% 3.4× 596,925
CAMINUL PENTRU PERSOANE VIRSTNICE IDECIU DE JOS CUI: 4641520 2024 1,335,422 666,831 47 49.9% 9.3× 595,100
FEDERATIA ROMANA DE CANOTAJ CUI: 4203849 2023 3,747,758 749,276 13 20.0% 4.8× 594,329
COMUNA TEREGOVA CUI: 3227246 2023 3,317,156 731,140 15 22.0% 5.3× 593,996
INSPECTORATUL POLITIEI A JUDETULUI TIMIS CUI: 4250697 2025 2,571,756 750,987 21 29.2% 4.7× 592,206
DIRECTIA GENERALA DE ASISTENTA SOCIALA SI PROTECTIA COPILULUI OLT CUI: 9746625 2020 3,076,689 853,572 111 27.7% 3.3× 591,758
UNITATEA MILITARA 01026 CUI: 4193184 2025 2,805,512 763,724 29 27.2% 4.4× 590,510
ORAS LIVADA CUI: 3896852 2025 3,353,153 797,337 12 23.8% 3.9× 590,312
COMUNA BORDESTI CUI: 4297657 2024 3,841,177 796,449 10 20.7% 3.9× 590,125
TEATRUL NATIONAL V ALECSANDRI CUI: 4540445 2021 933,958 676,339 148 72.4% 7.8× 589,812
BIBLIOTECA ANTIM IVIREANU CUI: 2541193 2022 1,448,931 725,679 24 50.1% 5.3× 587,958
AGENTIA NATIONALA PENTRU POLITICI SI COORDONARE IN DOMENIUL DROGURILOR SI AL ADICTIILOR CUI: 51456053 2025 1,203,781 662,145 14 55.0% 8.9× 587,823
AUTORITATEA VAMALA ROMANA CUI: 45789320 2024 4,543,224 831,581 154 18.3% 3.4× 587,547
COMUNA NUSFALAU CUI: 4291921 2022 2,973,492 870,090 25 29.3% 3.1× 587,458
COMUNA CORBENI CUI: 4122051 2020 2,186,654 772,306 9 35.3% 4.2× 586,231
COMUNA ADAMCLISI CUI: 7097998 2018 2,329,488 767,886 22 33.0% 4.2× 584,649
COMUNA VLADENI CUI: 4365441 2022 2,603,539 831,985 10 32.0% 3.4× 584,518

376-400 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