In a previous article, we provided an overview of some of the most important things that you need to think about if your business is to become tender-ready. We introduced the concept of the Tender Readiness Index, which is a smart approach for identifying and tracking the most important things that your business needs to do or have to be successful at winning tenders. First step is to confirm your eligibility to tender for opportunities.

In exploring the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority’s guidelines for bidders, we came across the following detailed breakdown of what they define as the general requirements for potential suppliers to public entities:

• Registration with Attorney General/incorporation certificate;
• Copy of PIN certificate and compliance with VAT (Electronic Tax Register), NSSF and NHIF and valid tax compliance certificates;
• The necessary qualifications, capability, experience, resources, equipment and facilities to provide what is being procured;
• Legal capacity to enter into contract;
• Not insolvent, in receivership , bankrupt or in the process of being wound up and not subject to related legal proceedings;
• Not precluded from contracting by being an employee of the procuring entity or a member of its board or committee or certain relatives of the same; and
• Not having been debarred by the Director-General PPOA from participating in procurement proceedings on account of an offence, breach of contract or other valid reason.

Do you have all these boxes ticked? Do you feel your business is ready to start exploring public procurement opportunities? Well, that also depends on the type of procurement as well as the category in which you are interested in participating because there are additional requirements for some.

Additional special requirements for eligibility

The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has mapped the following additional requirements that may be specified for certain procurements types or categories:

• For building works, the potential bidder should be registered in either the Roads or Works Registers maintained by the Ministry of Roads or the Ministry of Public Works;
• Business Permits;
• Energy Regulation Commission registration and classification if the works include electrical installation;
• Evidence of completion of similar works in previous 2 years;
• Provision of bid security of a certain amount (maximum 2% of the contract price); and
• Audited accounts for 3 years.

In our next article Special Requirements for Eligibility to Tender, we have done a deep dive into the additional special requirements that are needed for the specific requirements. Keep reading!

This article is part of the Public Procurement Guidelines for Bidders series