Latvia Puts Large State Procurements Under Review: What Bidders Need to Know

Latvia's finance minister has said out loud what bidders mutter in private: public procurement "must not become almost a synonym for wasting money." On 25 August 2026 the Cabinet of Ministers backed him with a decision that puts every large purchase by the central government and its companies under review.

Quick answer: the Cabinet approved a Finance Ministry protocol decision ordering the State Chancellery, every ministry and their subordinate institutions to assess each planned or already started procurement worth €140,000 or more for goods and services, or €1 million or more for works. Each one must be justified as necessary and the requirements set for suppliers shown to be proportionate, with ICT purchases singled out. State-owned companies had to finish by 1 September. Ministers report to the Cabinet by 30 September. If you sell to the Latvian state, the tender you are bidding on may be one of the ones being written up.

The decision in five numbers

• €140,000: the review line for goods and services contracts, planned or already started
• €1,000,000: the review line for works contracts
• 1 September 2026: the deadline for state-owned companies to have reviewed their procurements
• 30 September 2026: the deadline for ministers to put their results before the Cabinet
• One form: the Procurement Monitoring Bureau sends every institution the same template, so the answers can be compared

What was decided

The review goes beyond checking whether a procurement is expensive. Institutions have to ask whether the purchase is necessary, whether its cost is justified, whether alternatives exist, and whether the requirements placed on suppliers are proportionate to the subject and scale of the contract.

ICT gets particular attention. The Finance Ministry also wants buyers to look for risks of price inflation and dependency on a single supplier, including in purchases made through the e-catalogues of the state Electronic Procurement System. The results go back to the Cabinet on one standard form from the Procurement Monitoring Bureau, so the answers from different ministries can be compared.

The decision tells buyers to "ensure the widest possible competition and economical handling of financial resources". Finance Minister Māris Kučinskis framed the exercise as a test for his colleagues: "Every ministry and every minister must be able to show clearly that the planned procurements are useful, justified and deliver real value to society." His ministry describes the review as one of the government's measures against price inflation and restricted competition in public purchasing.

Why the thresholds matter

The two lines are not arbitrary. €140,000 is the EU threshold from 1 January 2026 above which central-government purchases of goods and services must be advertised across the Union, so the goods and services under review are broadly the ones a bidder anywhere in Europe would expect to see on TED once they are published. The works line is different: the EU threshold for works is €5,404,000, so a €1 million cut-off reaches deep into contracts that are advertised only nationally. And both figures have a future in Latvian law. Under the procurement reform the Saeima passed in May, the full procedure rules will apply from €140,000 for goods and services and from €1 million for works from 1 January 2028. The review is testing the state's purchases against the lines the law itself is moving to.

Tendly's data gives a sense of the volume. Of the 679 tenders currently open for bidding in Latvia, 147 carry a published estimate of €140,000 or more and 49 are at €1 million or more. Those counts understate the real number, because 329 of the open tenders publish no estimate at all. Two dozen of the open tenders name a ministry or the State Chancellery as the buyer, and 19 are ICT purchases, six of them above the review line. The review does not touch municipalities, which are a large part of the Latvian market, so most open tenders sit outside it. But for a supplier to the state, the value bands now under scrutiny are exactly where the serious contracts are.

What nobody has said yet

The decision orders an evaluation and a report. It does not pause any tender, and it does not say what happens to a procurement that fails the test. Whether the results will be published, and whether bidders will be told when a running tender is amended or withdrawn as a result, is not in the decision either. The first answers should come when the ministers' reports reach the Cabinet at the end of September.

What to do now

• Bidding on a large Latvian state tender now? Watch for amendment or withdrawal notices through September. The review does not pause tenders, but buyers who cannot justify a requirement have a reason to change it.
• Lost a Latvian state tender to an entrenched supplier? Note which requirement locked you out. If that tender comes back after 30 September, check whether the requirement survived.
• Selling ICT to the Latvian state? The decision names dependency on a supplier as a risk to be assessed. Be ready to show what switching to you costs and what it saves.

Open Tendly to see which of the Latvian tenders currently open match your company, or let a Strategist expert watch the market for you as the review results land.