Skip to content

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 MARGAU CUI: 4426220 2023 1,451,802 604,063 6 41.6% 10.1× 544,040
COMUNA FOROTIC CUI: 3227823 2020 905,814 620,437 15 68.5% 8.1× 543,356
TRIBUNALUL ILFOV CUI: 29342362 2025 2,872,160 720,162 70 25.1% 4.1× 542,833
COMUNA FRUMOASA CUI: 4246173 2024 3,515,678 730,058 16 20.8% 3.9× 541,218
COMUNA ANDRASESTI CUI: 4231636 2024 3,620,810 733,635 31 20.3% 3.8× 539,148
COMUNA BALCAUTI CUI: 4441298 2023 3,076,395 665,916 9 21.7% 5.2× 538,726
INALTA CURTE DE CASATIE SI JUSTITIE CUI: 4340587 2020 3,094,400 800,817 116 25.9% 3.0× 537,496
UNITATEA MILITARA 01847 CUI: 4299496 2025 1,292,697 616,669 25 47.7% 7.7× 536,857
DIRECTIA DE ASISTENTA SOCIALA CUI: 37581018 2025 2,061,581 663,928 17 32.2% 5.2× 536,645
ORASUL BUZIAS CUI: 2502534 2019 2,754,518 744,572 37 27.0% 3.6× 535,337
COMUNA BEICA DE JOS CUI: 4565253 2023 2,510,482 638,479 8 25.4% 6.2× 534,686
TEATRUL NATIONAL ILCARAGIALE CUI: 4192626 2021 2,233,814 740,674 819 33.2% 3.6× 533,722
COMUNA PURANI CUI: 16380704 2020 1,620,079 671,110 14 41.4% 4.9× 533,248
SCOALA GIMNAZIALA NR280 CUI: 33323539 2018 942,249 605,696 9 64.3% 8.2× 531,579
COMUNA DUDESTI CUI: 4342766 2022 2,608,733 779,202 8 29.9% 3.1× 531,241
COMUNA CONCESTI CUI: 3643892 2019 931,300 601,480 16 64.6% 8.5× 530,738
ORASUL AMARA CUI: 4427889 2019 2,483,500 717,180 12 28.9% 3.8× 528,532
COMUNA MARCULESTI CUI: 17541604 2022 1,011,334 623,733 5 61.7% 6.5× 527,605
UNITATEA MILITARA 01016 CUI: 32537534 2020 2,727,459 759,560 51 27.9% 3.3× 527,464
TEATRUL NATIONAL ILCARAGIALE CUI: 4192626 2024 4,247,099 755,579 81 17.8% 3.3× 527,451
COMUNA IACOBENI CUI: 4307114 2022 2,474,733 762,667 30 30.8% 3.2× 527,443
COMUNA COVASANT CUI: 3520253 2025 2,311,237 668,334 20 28.9% 4.7× 525,637
ORASUL GATAIA CUI: 4357988 2019 3,442,301 787,067 25 22.9% 3.0× 525,588
COMUNA TARCAU CUI: 2614430 2019 2,635,445 723,034 26 27.4% 3.6× 522,844
ECONOMAT SECTOR 5 SRL CUI: 14330840 2019 2,822,073 736,377 40 26.1% 3.4× 522,011

451-475 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