State Procurement Agency

State Procurement Agency was created by decree No 583 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated May 16, 1997 with the aim of carrying out state policy in the field of procurement of goods (works and services) at the expense of state funds, and its objectives defined by the Regulations approved by Decree No. 855 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dated February 20, 2003 in accordance with the requirements of Article 4 of “The State Procurement Law.

According to its Regulations the State Agency on Procurement were assigned a duty of creation and improvement of legal and normative acts on procurements in Republic of Azerbaijan, provision of control on execution of contracts and legality of procurements of goods (works and services) on tender basis from the funds of the state, implementation of measures as defined by legislation in order to increase the level of qualification of specialists of procurement organizations in the field of public procurement, the creation of a database in the field of public procurement, fulfillment of other obligations defined in the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The first legal document regulating public procurements in the Republic of Azerbaijan, Regulation “On procurement of goods (works and services) by the budgetary organizations was approved by the Decree 524 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dated December 19, 1996, and little later, the Law  of Republic of Azerbaijan On tender” was adopted in February 11, 1997, and Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the implementation of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On tender” was signed in April 7, 1997. 

During the application of the above-mentioned documents the State Procurement Agency by learning the experience gained in this field, taking into account the  recommendations of the World Bank, existing documents of European Union countries on public procurements, the provisions of World Trade Organization agreements on the public procurement, new draft Law  On State Procurement was developed, the same draft law was adopted on December 27, 2001 by Parliament, and it inured by Decree No. 668 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated January 29, 2002, On public procurements.

According to Decree all public procurement of 250 million manats and over are carried out through an open tender and in case if proposed cost of goods (works and services) is less than 250 million manat, the procurement agency will use any procurement method. If the expected tender cost is over 5 billion manat, and in budget funded organizations is over 1.5  billion manat or adequately equal amount in hard currency   then Tender Commission will include members from  Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development  of Republic of Azerbaijan and representatives of relevant central executive bodies having relations to tender subject. Any resident or non-resident legal or natural persons or legal entities, community, irrespective of the state belonging,  can participate as a plaintiff in public procurement procedures in the Republic of Azerbaijan.