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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
STATIUNEA DE CERCETARE DEZVOLTARE AGRICOLA SIMNIC CRAIOVA CUI: 3078896 2018 1,139,397 611,133 11 53.6% 6.8× 521,508
COMUNA PUTINEIU CUI: 4568616 2020 2,313,565 717,936 18 31.0% 3.7× 521,061
ORAS SARMASU CUI: 6405259 2025 2,533,196 677,382 15 26.7% 4.3× 520,981
COMUNA GALATENI CUI: 6491837 2020 2,048,751 694,747 11 33.9% 4.0× 520,407
EURO APAVOL SA CUI: 27778056 2018 2,175,878 690,141 10 31.7% 4.0× 518,986
COMUNA NISTORESTI CUI: 4447274 2021 1,773,061 682,091 16 38.5% 4.2× 517,826
COMUNA DABACA CUI: 4378824 2024 1,557,607 601,388 6 38.6% 7.2× 517,723
COMUNA FARCASELE CUI: 4491334 2020 1,838,341 673,510 17 36.6% 4.3× 517,075
CASA JUDETEANA DE PENSII CUI: 13589340 2024 1,328,419 588,161 52 44.3% 8.2× 516,807
COMUNA SIRETEL CUI: 4541386 2019 1,515,885 630,453 13 41.6% 5.5× 515,306
ADMINISTRATIA DOMENIULUI PUBLIC CUI: 2406901 2020 2,581,795 734,328 14 28.4% 3.3× 514,628
TEATRUL NATIONAL V ALECSANDRI CUI: 4540445 2023 1,047,059 557,655 153 53.3% 12.9× 514,366
PARCHETUL DE PE LANGA TRIBUNALUL BRASOV CUI: 4688531 2025 977,767 573,689 7 58.7% 9.5× 513,321
COMUNA SMARDAN CUI: 4793898 2019 2,487,300 702,230 13 28.2% 3.7× 513,293
AGENTIA DE COOPERARE INTERNATIONALA PENTRU DEZVOLTARE CUI: 38280684 2021 1,327,723 636,238 32 47.9% 5.2× 513,231
COMUNA BILIESTI CUI: 16332375 2019 1,572,257 632,507 20 40.2% 5.3× 513,078
GRADINITA CU PROGRAM PRELUNGIT BOBOCEI DIN MICRO III CUI: 28269310 2021 1,335,692 635,438 14 47.6% 5.1× 511,693
COMUNA CENAD CUI: 4358231 2022 1,792,356 681,367 18 38.0% 4.0× 511,003
COMUNA SELARU CUI: 4532515 2025 2,014,048 635,081 5 31.5% 5.1× 510,733
COMUNA TUSNAD CUI: 4245941 2022 2,543,543 752,287 11 29.6% 3.1× 510,522
CASA JUDETEANA DE PENSII CUI: 13589340 2023 1,280,615 561,802 56 43.9% 10.6× 508,857
GRADINITA NR 69 BUCURESTI CUI: 24358252 2018 1,110,567 594,000 5 53.5% 6.8× 506,643
COMUNA SIC CUI: 4617689 2022 2,622,364 755,866 19 28.8% 3.0× 506,609
COMUNA GALICEA CUI: 2541118 2020 1,212,180 609,610 26 50.3% 5.9× 506,458
AGENTIA NATIONALA ANTI-DOPING CUI: 18018990 2022 1,745,839 671,738 79 38.5% 4.1× 505,795

476-500 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