Government Tenders and Procurement Law

Purpose and scope

• Governs procedures for government works and procurement, prevents abuse of influence and personal interests to protect public funds, and secures competition, equality and transparency (Article 2).
• Government bodies deal directly with licensed persons; brokerage in contracting is not allowed, though a distributor or accredited agent is not a broker (Article 90), and a regulation gives preference to local content and local small and medium enterprises.

Key rules, rights and obligations

• An initial guarantee of 1% to 2% of the bid value accompanies the bid, and a bid without it is excluded (Article 41).
• After the award is announced there is a standstill of five to ten working days during which the contract may not be signed, so bidders can object (Article 53).
• The winning bidder provides a final guarantee of 5% of the contract value within fifteen working days of notice, or forfeits the initial guarantee (Article 61).

Violations, penalties and common problems

• Delay penalties may not exceed 6% of a supply contract's value and 20% of other contracts (Article 72); in continuing service contracts they may not exceed 20%, with unperformed work deducted (Article 73).
• The competent committee may bar a violator from dealing with government bodies for up to five years or downgrade its classification, or instead impose a fine of up to 10% of its total bid value, and a summary of the decision is published (Article 88).
• Common problems: missing the short objection deadlines, delays without documented causes, and not requesting an extension in the cases the law allows (Article 74).

Procedures and key deadlines

• A bidder may object to the body against any decision before award within five working days, and against the award during the standstill; the body decides within fifteen working days or the objection is deemed rejected, after which the bidder may go to the committee within three days (Article 87).
• Decisions of the violations committee may be challenged before the administrative court within sixty days of learning of them (Article 88).

An advisory summary prepared by Al-Bayan Al-Wadih Law Firm. It is not an official text and does not replace the law, its implementing regulations, or advice from a specialised lawyer. The official published text and its amendments prevail.