Why people look at this
Unspent budgets lapse at year end. Research on United States federal contracts found spending in the last week of the year ran several times the weekly average, and year-end projects were rated lower quality.
How it is worked out
- Provincial and federal fiscal years end on 31 March; Paradise's year ends on 31 December.
- For each public body with at least 20 dated awards or payments, the last month's share of dollars is compared with an even share (one twelfth).
- Flagged when the last month holds at least three times an even share.
Data used
What it cannot tell you
Some work is seasonal. Award dates are as printed, and a few printed dates are plainly wrong (see the date check).
The Open Contracting Partnership's guide to red flags puts it this way: a red flag is not evidence that anything wrong happened. It points at something that may be worth a closer look.
This page and the calculation are generated from one definition, so they cannot drift apart. See the results.