The government has approved and is sending to the Riigikogu a bill to amend the Public Procurement Act, with the aim of making the procurement process simpler and faster.
The legislative amendments will also reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and help deliver essential services and investments to people more quickly than before.
“The rules that ensure fair competition can’t be overly simple, but we’ve proposed a new balance — one where procedural complexity doesn’t overly hinder participation in procurements and thereby encourages competition,” said Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (Reform).
The current rules and thresholds have remained unchanged for years and do not reflect today’s market conditions. As a result, the system is being simplified.
For example, the domestic procurement threshold will be eliminated. Going forward, only two types of procurement will remain: simplified and international. The bill will also raise the thresholds for simplified procurement, meaning many smaller procurements can be carried out more quickly and with fewer formalities.
As a result of the changes, organizing approximately half of all procurements will become easier and the average processing time will be significantly reduced. This means public services will reach people more quickly, while businesses will spend less time and money to participate. Procedural steps and oversight will be considerably reduced, but the core principles and rules necessary to ensure fair competition and safeguard taxpayers’ money will remain in place.
In practical terms, schools and kindergartens, for instance, will be able to organize procurements of around €200,000, such as for furniture or IT equipment, under the simplified procedure and more quickly than before.
Local governments will be able to order road, building or infrastructure repairs and construction work up to €100,000 under an even simpler procedure, allowing work to begin sooner.
In the energy and water sectors, network operators will be able to carry out smaller investments and maintenance work more quickly.
For businesses, longer deadlines for submitting bids in simplified procurements will provide more time to prepare high-quality offers, while the overall procurement process will remain shorter than under the current, more complex procedures.
The new law is scheduled to enter into force on September 1, 2026 and any procurement processes already underway will be completed under the current rules.
—