The Secretariat of Government Tenders and Procurement Committees Issues the “Code of Principles” for Competitors’ Complaints and Price Adjustment Requests

Introduction

The Secretariat of the Government Tenders and Procurement System has issued the first edition of the Code of Principles derived from the decisions of the Committee for Reviewing Complaints and Price Adjustment Requests for the year 1446 AH (2025 AD). This step comes as part of efforts to enhance transparency and reinforce fairness in the application of the Government Tenders and Procurement System.

The Code represents the result of an in-depth study and analysis of the Committee’s decisions from 2021 to 2024, documenting the established regulatory principles to serve as a valuable reference for researchers, specialists, and stakeholders interacting with the system. It also aims to enhance confidence, standardize regulatory practices, and clarify the legal and procedural positions of competitors and government entities. The Secretariat emphasized that the Code does not constitute a binding precedent for the Committee in future cases, but rather a documentation effort intended to make the derived principles more accessible to system users.

Background of the Code’s Issuance

The issuance of this Code comes in the context of the developmental renaissance taking place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The new Government Tenders and Procurement System, issued under Royal Decree No. (M/128) dated 13/11/1440 AH, constitutes a fundamental pillar for good governance, a tool for protecting public funds, and a means to enhance spending efficiency. The system aims to reinforce the principles of integrity and transparency, create a fair competitive environment ensuring equality among competitors, and support the nation’s economic development journey.

First: Procedural Principles

The Code includes six procedural principles, the most notable of which are: the requirement to submit a bank guarantee for a complaint to be accepted, the rejection of complaints submitted after the statutory deadline, and the non-acceptance of incomplete guarantees or those not addressed to the Committee. It also stipulates that categories exempted from the initial guarantee, such as small enterprises, are still required to provide a guarantee when filing a complaint.

Second: Substantive Principles

Regarding the substantive principles, the Code includes eleven principles, the most notable of which are: passing the technical proposal is a fundamental requirement, and the lowest financial offer is not considered without it; previous performance of any competitor cannot be used as a reason for exclusion from the competition except by a decision of a specialized committee. The principles also specify that price preference for small and medium enterprises is limited to cases where citizen ownership exceeds 50%, and that the bid evaluation committee must adhere to the announced criteria and weights without introducing new criteria.

The Committee also affirmed the right of government entities to correct procedural errors whenever possible, while emphasizing transparency by allowing excluded competitors to review their scores and the reasons for their exclusion. It required that documents and certificates be valid only at the time of bid opening, and that technical evaluation criteria be objective, clear, and measurable, considering the use of general or vague criteria as a clear violation of the system.

The Code affirmed that submitting a bid constitutes an implicit acknowledgment of the competition’s conditions, preventing any later objection or claim of ignorance. It also established the principle that the competition must be canceled if it contains substantive, uncorrectable violations, such as the formation of an incompetent committee. Moreover, if an error by the government entity is proven in understanding or applying a specific evaluation criterion, the entity is required to re-evaluate and correct any procedures based on that error.

Conclusion 

This Code reflects the Secretariat of the Government Tenders and Procurement System’s commitment to promoting principles of fairness and transparency in the business environment and ensuring consistent regulatory practices in complaint handling and competitions. It also represents an important step toward building a reliable knowledge reference that contributes to raising legal awareness among competitors and government entities, enhancing public spending efficiency, and reinforcing the principles of good governance that the Kingdom aims to embed as part of the objectives of Vision 2030.