Uruguay's public procurement
Price flags
Contracts where the unit price departs sharply from what the state usually pays for the same item. A flag is not an accusation: it marks something worth a look.
How it is calculated
For each combination of item, currency and unit of measure, a price baseline is built from the last 36 months. Each award's unit price is then scored against that baseline using a robust measure in log space: it uses the median rather than the mean, so a huge contract cannot mask its own anomaly.
At least 10 comparable items are needed to score a price, and 30 to assign the highest severities.
There are legitimate explanations: urgent purchases, different specifications under the same catalogue code, or items misclassified at the source.
AMIKACINA (INYECTABLE) ampolla
Centro Departamental de Salto · FARMACO URUGUAYO S.A.
No apparent explanationUnexplained60%
Precio unitario de amikacina 500 MG ampolla (51 UYU) supera el techo del rango habitual (37-43 UYU) sin que la cantidad, la presentación/concentración (coincidente con el estándar del catálogo) o el procedimiento ofrezcan una justificación visible.
Paid$ 51Usual range$ 37 – 43SUTURA NYLON MONOFILAMENTO 4-0 unidad
Centro Departamental de Salto · COVIDIEN URUGUAY SOCIEDAD ANONIMA
No apparent explanationUnexplained90%
El precio pagado por la sutura está por encima del rango estadístico sin justificación aparente en el contexto.
Paid$ 126Usual range$ 40 – 122