How to bid for government tenders in Barbados

Barbados at a glance


Main law	Public Procurement Act, 2021, amended 2023; in force since 1 October 2023
Responsible office	Government Procurement Department, headed by the Chief Procurement Officer
Portal	Bonfire at gov-bb.bonfirehub.com
Supplier register	Needed before signature; no registration fee; renewed every year
Open tender at or above	BBD 300,000 (goods, services); BBD 500,000 (works)
Foreign bidders	Welcome; no TAMIS number needed; home-country documents accepted
Preferences	None in the Act
Language	English
Challenges	Reconsideration within a standstill of at least 10 working days; then the Tribunal within 14 working days

Where tenders appear

Bonfire. Tenders are published and submitted on the Bonfire portal at gov-bb.bonfirehub.com, under “open opportunities”. Go there directly: in October 2026 the older government gateway site showed security warnings and out-of-date text.
Online by default. Bonfire reportedly ran as a pilot from April to September 2023 before procurement moved online.
Newspapers and websites. Every notice must appear at least once in a daily national newspaper and on government websites. Where foreign bidders are needed for enough competition, notices also go out through regional or international media.
Agency sites. Some bodies, such as the National Insurance and Social Security Service, also post tenders on their own sites.
Procurement plans. Entities publish planned procurements before each financial year, updated every 6 months.
Lender-funded projects. Where a treaty or an agreement with a lender conflicts with the Act, that agreement wins, so donor-funded tenders can follow the lender’s rules.

Thresholds and procedures

Amounts are in Barbados dollars (BBD). The Minister of Finance can change the thresholds by Order, but we found no such Order.

Method	When
Open tendering (mandatory)	Goods, services, or both, at or above BBD 300,000
Open tendering (mandatory)	Works, alone or with goods or services, at or above BBD 500,000
Request for quotations	Below those thresholds; at least 3 suppliers from the Suppliers Register, no negotiation
Restricted tendering	With permission, if 10 or fewer suppliers can do the job, or for unforeseeable urgency
Single source	Sole source, compatibility, urgency after a disaster, or national security or public health

Single-source approval. The Chief Procurement Officer approves above BBD 50,000, and the Director of Finance and Economic Affairs at or above the open-tender thresholds.
No splitting. Contracts can’t be split to avoid the rules. The value includes the maximum total over the contract’s life.
Days mean working days. The Act counts days excluding weekends and public holidays, so every deadline below does too, unless we say “calendar days”.
Bid period. The Act sets no fixed minimum. The deadline must give “sufficient time”, and the tenders committee chair can extend it.
CARICOM figure. The CARICOM Protocol, scheduled to the Act, sets at least 40 calendar days for open bidding at or above USD 150,000 for goods and services, or USD 3,000,000 for works. We couldn’t confirm that it binds in practice.
In practice. A Revenue Authority tender in January 2026 allowed about 26 calendar days.
Late bids are returned unopened, unless the delay was caused by force majeure.

Who can bid

No nationality bar. Regional and international firms register through the same “Register as a Vendor” process as local ones, and don’t need a TAMIS number (the Barbados tax system number).
The Suppliers Register. No contract can be signed with a supplier that isn’t on it.
- What you provide: contact details, evidence of legal capacity to contract, and whether you offer goods, services or works. Tax and bank details are added “where available”.
- Validity: one year, renewed annually. The original 2021 text gave 3 years.
- Cost: no registration fee, and no cost to submit a bid.
Proving eligibility from abroad. You can provide certified equivalent documents from your home authority, or an official statement that none are issued there.
Basic eligibility. You must have legal capacity to contract and must not be insolvent or being wound up.
Exclusion for 5 years follows misconduct such as false information, corruption, collusion, serious non-performance or refusing performance security. Debarment by a foreign government or international organisation also counts, if it followed a fair process.
Language. All documents and communications must be in English.
No local preference. The Act has no margin of preference for Barbadian or CARICOM firms. Since 2023, procurement must promote the government’s socio-economic policies, but no figure is set.
CARICOM Protocol. It requires national treatment for suppliers of other Contracting Parties and bans offsets, including local-preference margins. CARICOM’s treaty page shows only Barbados and Belize as having ratified it, so we couldn’t confirm how far it applies.
Utility-scale power. Winners must file a local content plan covering at least 5 years, including an offer of equity to local investors within 3 years of commercial operation.
WTO GPA. According to a 2021 US Commerce guide, Barbados isn’t a party.
Open questions. That 2021 guide also said bidders needed local company registration; we couldn’t confirm whether this still applies. Nor could we confirm whether tenders routinely ask for tax or social-security clearance certificates.

Bidding, step by step

Find opportunities under “open opportunities” on gov-bb.bonfirehub.com, and watch national newspapers and agency websites.
Register as a vendor on Bonfire. Foreign firms skip the TAMIS number. There’s no registration fee.
Get onto the Suppliers Register with your contact details, legal-capacity evidence and category. Diary the annual renewal.
Prepare eligibility evidence: home-country equivalents of Barbadian certificates, or an official statement that none exist, all in English.
Read the tender documents. Check the criteria and weights, bid security, validity period and deadline. Challenge unlawful terms before the submission deadline.
Submit on Bonfire before the deadline (the January 2026 example closed at 11:30 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time). You can un-submit and edit until the close.
Watch for the successful tender notice. Within 5 working days you can ask why you lost, and the entity replies within 10. Reconsideration requests go in during the standstill.
If you win, provide any required performance security, then sign a contract in the form approved by the Solicitor General. Contracts under BBD 50,000 may be a purchase order.

Securities and payment

Bid security is optional. If required, it applies to all bidders. The Act sets no percentage; each tender sets the amount and form.
Forfeiture only follows withdrawing or changing your bid after the deadline, refusing to sign, failing to give performance security, or failing other pre-contract conditions.
Bid validity. You can refuse an extension without losing your security, and withdraw before the deadline without penalty.
Performance security is set by the tender documents. Refusing it can make you ineligible. The Act fixes no percentage.
Typical amounts. We couldn’t confirm typical bid or performance security percentages under the current Act. The only examples we found predate it.
Payment terms are set by each contract, not the Act. We couldn’t confirm standard terms.

How bids are evaluated

Stated criteria only. Entities can use only the criteria in the tender documents, such as price, running costs, delivery time and experience. Non-price criteria should be measurable.
Corrections. Arithmetic errors are corrected; no other price change is allowed.
Abnormally low bids can be rejected, but only after a written request for an explanation.
Who decides. The entity recommends a winner; the tenders committee accepts it or decides itself.
Negotiation after selection is limited to minor matters and can’t cover price, unless price wasn’t evaluated.
No lowest-price guarantee. Notices typically say the entity needn’t accept the lowest or any bid.
Award transparency. Losing bidders get the winner and price within 3 days of signature. Award lists are published on 31 March and 30 September.

Challenging a decision

Step 1: reconsideration. Apply in writing to the procuring entity or tenders committee, with the prescribed fee. We couldn’t find the fee amount.
- Tender terms: before the submission deadline.
- Other decisions: within the standstill of at least 10 working days from the successful tender notice.
- Timing: a written decision within 20 days of the entity’s notice of your application.
Step 2: the Public Procurement Tribunal. Appeal within 14 working days of the decision, or of when it was due, with the prescribed fee. The Tribunal decides within 20 days of its notice. We couldn’t confirm whether it has been set up in practice.
Automatic suspension. After a timely challenge, the entity can’t move to sign until the 15th day after the decision, unless the Tribunal allows it for urgent public interest.
Signed contracts stand. The Tribunal can annul unlawful decisions but can’t disturb a signed contract, so act fast.
Use it or lose it. If you skip reconsideration or appeal, you can’t challenge the same decisions later.
Registration decisions, such as refusal or removal, can be appealed to the Tribunal within 14 working days.
Court of Appeal. A further appeal lies from the Tribunal.
Utility-scale power follows its own route: a written appeal to the Minister within 14 days.

What changed in 2025–2026

1 October 2023 (still relevant): the Act and its 2023 amendment came into force, cutting registration to one year and allowing electronic procurement.
10 October 2025: the Electricity Supply Regulations, 2025 were gazetted. A Renewable Energy Procurement Committee now procures utility-scale generation and storage.
January–February 2026: tenders were still issued and received only through Bonfire.
No new amendments found. Our Official Gazette search found no amendment to the Act and no threshold Order from 2024 to October 2026.
October 2026: the older procure.gov.bb gateway’s security certificate had expired. Use gov-bb.bonfirehub.com directly.

Live Barbados tenders

Questions

Can a foreign company bid on government tenders in Barbados?

Yes. The Act has no nationality bar. Foreign firms register on the Bonfire portal the same way as local ones, without a TAMIS (Barbados tax) number, and can prove eligibility with certified home-country documents, or an official statement that none are issued.

Do I need to register before bidding in Barbados?

Yes. Bonfire needs an account before you can submit, and no contract can be signed with a supplier that isn’t on the Suppliers Register. There’s no registration fee and no cost to submit a bid. Registration lasts one year.

Is there a preference for Barbadian or CARICOM firms?

The Act sets no margin of preference. The CARICOM Protocol, scheduled to the Act, requires equal treatment of suppliers from other Contracting Parties and bans offsets. Utility-scale power projects are the exception: winners must file local-content and local-equity plans.

How long do I get to prepare a bid in Barbados?

The Act sets no fixed minimum, only ‘sufficient time’. The CARICOM Protocol sets at least 40 calendar days for larger open tenders, but we couldn’t confirm that it binds in practice. A January 2026 tender allowed about 26 days.

What language and format do bids use in Barbados?

English only, submitted electronically on Bonfire. Bid security, performance security and payment terms are set in each tender’s documents.

How do I challenge a Barbados tender decision?

Apply for reconsideration to the procuring entity or tenders committee within the standstill of at least 10 working days, or before the bid deadline if you’re challenging the tender terms. Then appeal to the Public Procurement Tribunal within 14 working days, and from there to the Court of Appeal.

Sources

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.