Saudi finance ministry releases draft government procurement regulations

Saudi Arabia’s finance ministry on Sunday released the first draft of the government’s tender and procurement regulations on its website, so that related parties can share their views and suggestions until Saturday, Oct. 28.

The move comes as part of the ministry’s efforts to regulate government procurement procedures, aiming to ensure equal opportunities and transparency in order to support local content and the Kingdom’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The draft includes mechanisms to identify the qualifications of the bidders and their ability to execute contracts and ensure quality outputs. It also includes mechanisms needed to determine bid criteria (price related and non-price related) and to resolve disputes.

The new regulations will promote performance assessment and will tie the contractor’s level of performance to the fulfillment of payments due.

In addition, the new rules will adopt compensating the contractors if the prices of main materials see any change or the tariffs, fees or taxes were modified.