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.
FRESA ZEKRYA unidad
Centro Departamental de Rocha · ALOY LEITES MONICA ELVIRA
No apparent explanationUnexplained90%
El precio unitario de la fresa odontológica excede el rango estadístico sin justificación aparente en el contexto.
Paid$ 643Usual range$ 295 – 599GEL DE GRABADO ACIDO jeringa
Red de Atención Primaria de Rivera · ALOY LEITES MONICA ELVIRA
No apparent explanationUnexplained45%
El precio pagado por el gel de grabado ácido apenas supera el techo habitual del código (431,82 frente a un p95 de 423,77), sin que la presentación documentada (jeringa de 12 g), la cantidad adjudicada (30) ni el resto del contexto del contrato justifiquen ese excedente.
Paid$ 432Usual range$ 101 – 426