Saudi Arabia's official gazette, Umm al-Qura, published a new Government Tenders and Procurement Law on 22 Rabi al-Awwal 1448H, 4 September 2026. The law runs to 101 articles across seven parts, and Article 100 states that it replaces the Government Tenders and Procurement Law issued under Royal Decree M/128 of 13/11/1440H and repeals any conflicting provisions.
The date that matters to suppliers is Article 101: the law applies 120 days after its publication in the official gazette. Counting from 4 September 2026, that period ends on 2 January 2027 — under four months to align your bid and contract cycle with the new text.
Key Highlights
- Delegation ceiling of SAR 50 million. Article 51 lets the head of a government entity delegate decisions up to fifty million riyals, with delegation graded by the delegate's level of responsibility.
- Ministry of Finance contract review in four working days. Article 57 requires the Ministry to respond within four working days; if it does not respond, approval is deemed given.
- Direct purchase up to SAR 1 million. Article 32(3) allows direct purchase where the estimated cost does not exceed one million riyals, with priority for local small and medium enterprises.
- A standstill of three to ten working days. Article 50 requires a standstill period after competitors are notified of the award — no less than three and no more than ten working days — so they can appeal.
- Bid validity of 90 working days. Article 39 counts validity in working days, not calendar days, from the date set for opening bids.
- Final guarantee of 5 percent within fifteen working days, not required where the value does not exceed SAR 300,000 or where the contract is between government entities (Article 59).
- Change orders. Article 67: new items added up to 10 percent of contract value, existing items increased up to 20 percent, and reduced up to 20 percent.
- Late-delivery penalties. Article 70 caps them at 6 percent of a supply contract and 15 percent of other contracts; Article 71 sets a 15 percent cap for default in continuous-execution service contracts.
- Sanctions for violations. Article 87 lets the competent committee bar an offender from dealing with government entities for up to five years, downgrade their classification, or impose a fine of up to 10 percent of the total value of their bid instead of a ban.
Details
The law defines the Portal as a unified electronic government procurement portal supervised by the Ministry of Finance, and makes it the primary channel for announcing competitions and providing tender documents electronically, with alternative means set by the regulations for technical or national-security reasons.
Article 12 requires every government entity to publish, at the start of each fiscal year, a plan containing the main information on its works and procurement for that year, and to coordinate with the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority on local content requirements. Publishing the plan creates no obligation on the entity, but it gives the market forward visibility it did not previously have in this form.
The general principles in Part One give priority to local small and medium enterprises, to local content, and to companies listed on the stock exchange, with the preference regulation setting out the mechanism.
One notably new provision is Article 91: where a government entity has fallen behind on amounts due to its contractors and has not acted despite notification from the Ministry, it may not issue a new award decision, as detailed by the regulations.
Impact
The law tightens a supplier's operating clock more than it changes qualification terms. A standstill that may run only three working days, a contract review that ends in deemed approval after four, and bid validity counted in working days are deadlines that a person checking the Etimad portal once each morning will miss.
Against that, Article 12 opens something new: published annual procurement plans that can be read programmatically and turned into an opportunity pipeline instead of waiting for the announcement. The difference between learning about a requirement when the plan is published and learning about it when the tender closes is worth building for.
If you are building that layer internally, our practical guide to integrating the Etimad API to automate government procurement covers registration and authentication, and our note on connecting AI to your existing business systems helps decide what to automate first.
Background
The previous law was issued under Royal Decree M/128 of 13/11/1440H and established Etimad as the unified channel for government competitions. The new law widens entities' authority, compresses procedural periods, and raises the presence of the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority from advance planning through bid evaluation.
Tax compliance runs alongside it: anyone contracting with a government entity issues invoices under the rules of the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, which cut the integration threshold in Wave 25 to SAR 187,500.
What's Next
The Ministry of Finance, in coordination with the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority, must prepare the executive regulations within 120 days of the law's publication. They are issued by ministerial decision and apply from the date the law applies. The Council of Ministers issues the other regulations referred to in the law within the same period.
In practice: the governing thresholds and percentages exist today, while the procedural detail — qualification controls, exemptions from the standstill, bid-evaluation criteria — arrives with the regulations before January 2027.
If you want a quick read on whether your systems can meet these deadlines before the law applies, talk to us about a half-day review of your bid cycle.
Source: Umm al-Qura Gazette — Government Tenders and Procurement Law