How to participate in public procurement in Kazakhstan: a step-by-step guide

Who can participate

A potential supplier can be an individual entrepreneur (IE, ИП), a legal entity (except government institutions, unless the law provides otherwise) or a consortium — a temporary association of legal entities. An individual without IE status may take part only in special cases, for example when selling housing to the state.

The law bars a supplier from participating if it:

• is listed in the unscrupulous suppliers register (РНП) or is related to persons listed in it;
• is included in the Unified Register of Debtors for failing to comply with enforcement documents;
• has founders registered in an offshore zone;
• is affiliated with the customer.

A supplier and its affiliate cannot participate in the same lot. Another new rule: if at least two private suppliers have bid for a lot, the portal automatically rejects bids from state enterprises and companies with a state share of 50% or more.

Step 1. Get an EDS

Everything on the portal is signed with an electronic digital signature (EDS, ЭЦП) issued by the National Certification Authority of Kazakhstan (НУЦ РК). You can get it free of charge at pki.gov.kz, via eGov or at a Public Service Center (ЦОН); remotely it takes one business day. To use the keys in a browser, you need the NCALayer application.

For details, see EDS for public procurement.

Step 2. Log in to the portal and pay for access

Since 31 August 2026, registration and login go through zakup.gov.kz. You do not need to register again: accounts from the old goszakup.gov.kz portal have been kept. A new LLP (ТОО) or IE must register on the portal no later than 3 business days after state registration — its details are pulled into the register of potential suppliers automatically from government databases.

Access to supplier functions is paid (Law, Art. 22). The fee is paid once a year; without it, the portal will not let you submit a bid or sign a contract. The rate depends on the maximum bid amount — according to media reports, in 2026 it starts at 3,170 ₸ a year for bids up to 1 million ₸.

The 2026 rates were approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 390; check the current amount in your personal account on the portal before paying.

Step 3. Check whether you meet the requirements

The qualification requirements are listed in Article 11 of the Law:

• legal capacity;
• financial stability — the portal calculates it itself from tax authority data;
• tax debt of no more than 6 MCI (МРП, the monthly calculation index) — 25,950 ₸ in 2026;
• no bankruptcy or liquidation;
• material, labour and financial resources;
• experience — contracts recorded in government information systems count.

Good news for small businesses: financial stability is required only if the lot amount exceeds 4,000 MCI for goods (17.3 million ₸), 20,000 MCI for works (86.5 million ₸) or 8,000 MCI for services (34.6 million ₸). The exception is design and expert review (экспертиза), where the requirement applies regardless of the amount.

Step 4. Find a suitable lot

Customers publish annual procurement plans within 5 business days of their approval, and announcements throughout the year. Searching manually on the portal takes a long time: lots are scattered across tens of thousands of announcements.

The MyTender catalogue brings together all open lots from goszakup, Samruk-Kazyna and Mitwork, with search by name, customer, BIN (Business Identification Number) and lot number, plus filters by amount, region and deadlines. A good place to start is the topic collections — for example, construction works or office supplies — and turning on notifications about new lots.

Step 5. Study the documentation and submit a bid

The procedure depends on the procurement method. In an open tender, draft tender documentation is published first: 2 business days for comments and questions, then bids are accepted for at least 5 business days after the discussion protocol. A request for price quotations (RFQ, ЗЦП) moves much faster: the announcement is posted no later than two business days before the submission deadline.

A bid is submitted as an electronic document and registered by the portal automatically. Open tenders, auctions and RFQs usually require bid security — 1% or 3% of the lot amount, as money in an electronic wallet or a bank guarantee.

Before bidding, it helps to know what competitors usually offer: a lot page on MyTender has an AI analysis of the technical specification, a bid price calculation and the results of this customer's past procurements.

Step 6. Results, contract and payment

In an RFQ and the e-shop, the portal picks the winner by the lowest price; in an open tender, by the “conditional price”, which factors in discounts for experience, taxes paid, location and other criteria. Open tender and auction results can be appealed within 3 business days.

1. The customer sends a draft contract within 3 business days — after the appeal period (open tender, auction) or after the winner is determined (RFQ, e-shop).
2. The winner signs the contract with an EDS within 3 business days. If the winner misses this deadline, another 3 days are given; after that, the contract goes to the runner-up.
3. Within 10 business days after the contract enters into force, performance security is provided: 3%, or 5% for contracts awarded through an RFQ.
4. The delivery period is at least 15 calendar days. Payment is due no later than 30 calendar days after the obligations are fulfilled.

A winner who fails to sign the contract or to provide performance security or the anti-dumping amount is deemed to have evaded the contract: the bid security is not returned, and the supplier is entered in the unscrupulous suppliers register for 24 months.