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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
AUTORITATEA NATIONALA PENTRU ADMINISTRARE SI REGLEMENTARE IN COMUNICATII CUI: 14751237 2025 1,060,014 558,278 21 52.7% 8.5× 492,832
CAMINUL PENTRU PERSOANE VIRSTNICE IDECIU DE JOS CUI: 4641520 2025 1,263,362 570,193 43 45.1% 7.3× 492,192
MINISTERUL CULTURII CUI: 4192812 2024 3,099,093 657,419 34 21.2% 4.0× 490,955
COMUNA ALUNIS CUI: 2843388 2020 815,958 560,232 6 68.7% 8.1× 490,797
TEATRUL DRAMATIC ELVIRA GODEANU CUI: 14738912 2021 565,971 543,192 8 96.0% 10.4× 490,758
UNITATEA MILITARA 02031 CUI: 14601582 2019 2,292,869 664,285 14 29.0% 3.8× 490,117
INSPECTORATUL PENTRU SITUATII DE URGENTA DOBROGEA A JUDETULUI CONSTANTA CUI: 4300558 2021 1,828,017 659,127 61 36.1% 3.9× 489,770
COMUNA VIILE SATU MARE CUI: 3896640 2021 1,923,606 666,538 22 34.7% 3.7× 488,325
CAMIN PENTRU PERSOANE VARSTNICE CRAIOVA CUI: 5001864 2023 2,955,252 610,488 167 20.7% 5.0× 488,307
COMUNA PUI CUI: 4374059 2019 2,365,145 667,267 18 28.2% 3.7× 487,609
AGENTIA NATIONALA ANTIDROG CUI: 28652497 2024 2,267,329 609,153 13 26.9% 5.0× 487,366
ORASUL SULINA CUI: 4321410 2021 2,439,998 713,043 22 29.2% 3.2× 486,989
SCOALA GIMNAZIALA MIHAI VITEAZU CAMPIA-TURZII CUI: 18004684 2022 888,770 571,387 16 64.3% 6.8× 486,909
COMUNA CONTESTI CUI: 4568519 2021 2,328,594 701,896 7 30.1% 3.3× 486,163
COMUNA CAPLENI CUI: 3963625 2025 1,825,374 597,888 15 32.8% 5.3× 485,189
COMUNA ARBORE CUI: 4326965 2023 3,503,456 629,238 8 18.0% 4.3× 484,392
COMUNA IORDACHEANU CUI: 2845800 2022 1,406,723 615,816 12 43.8% 4.6× 482,106
DIRECTIA GENERALA DE ASISTENTA SOCIALA SI PROTECTIA COPILULUI CUI: 8550000 2018 3,002,907 716,860 138 23.9% 3.0× 480,651
INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE EXPERTIZE CRIMINALISTICE CUI: 4420635 2022 1,077,385 582,976 23 54.1% 5.7× 480,570
ORASUL SALISTE CUI: 4306950 2019 2,191,632 646,925 17 29.5% 3.9× 480,447
INSPECTORATUL SCOLAR JUDETEAN MURES CUI: 4322548 2020 814,367 549,605 22 67.5% 7.9× 480,306
COMUNA BRAHASESTI CUI: 3602000 2021 2,542,705 715,670 21 28.2% 3.0× 480,101
COMUNA CICLOVA ROMANA CUI: 3227688 2020 998,767 564,856 8 56.6% 6.7× 479,865
COMPANIA MUNICIPALA TERMOENERGETICA BUCURESTI SA CUI: 41269473 2019 629,256 527,441 14 83.8% 11.0× 479,642
ORAS AZUGA CUI: 2843850 2019 1,831,654 618,336 37 33.8% 4.4× 479,203

526-550 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