How to bid for public contracts in Colombia.

Colombia at a glance

Colombia isn’t a party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement; access for foreign bidders comes through trade agreements. Entities with special regimes, such as many state companies and universities, follow their own manuals but still publish on SECOP.

Procedures and thresholds

Menor cuantía depends on the buyer’s annual budget. For 2026:

Timings to know:

• Draft tender documents: comments are open for 10 business days in licitación pública, and 5 in selección abreviada and concurso de méritos.
• Evaluation report: in licitación, it’s open for 5 business days of observations. You can’t improve your offer in that window.
• Selección abreviada de menor cuantía: you must file an expression of interest in time, or you can’t bid.
• Standard bidding documents (documentos tipo) are mandatory for many infrastructure processes, and since 2025 for social-infrastructure works.

Foreign bidders

Registration (RUP):

• The Registro Único de Proponentes is kept by chambers of commerce. It’s required for Colombian firms and for foreign firms domiciled or with a branch in Colombia.
• Foreign firms with no domicile or branch don’t need it. The buyer checks your legal capacity, experience and financial capacity directly from your bid documents.

Branch: you don’t need a Colombian branch to bid. If you win works, services or a concession, or any contract that needs permanent presence in Colombia, you must then set up a branch.

Documents:

• Apostille or consular legalisation applies only to foreign public documents. Private documents are presumed authentic. Simple copies are fine at the bid stage.
• A simple Spanish translation is enough with your bid; an official translation is due only if you win.
• Experience can come from clients in any country.
• Financials are last year’s audited statements, with what’s needed to convert currencies.
• Many tender documents ask foreign bidders without a branch to appoint an agent (apoderado) domiciled in Colombia. Check each one.

Consortia: consorcios and uniones temporales are allowed and are the usual way to pair a foreign and a Colombian firm. See consortium and joint venture bidding rules.

National treatment: buyers must treat bidders, goods and services as Colombian when they come from:

• a country with a trade agreement with Colombia, within that agreement’s coverage;
• a country certified by the Foreign Ministry as giving Colombians national treatment (reciprocity certificates, valid 2 years);
• an Andean Community country, for services.

Agreements with procurement coverage include Canada, the UK, the US, Chile, Costa Rica, the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Mexico, Peru), Korea, Mexico, the EU, EFTA and Israel, each with its own thresholds. Examples for central-government goods and services in 2026–27: US COP 440 m, UK COP 709 m, Korea COP 382 m, Chile COP 273 m, and EU and EFTA (2025–26) COP 735 m. The tender notice must say whether an agreement applies.

Registering and bidding on SECOP II, step by step

1. Register on SECOP II (community.secop.gov.co):
   • create a user, then a supplier account as a foreign company;
   • choose your UNSPSC product categories, value ranges and regions to receive alerts.
2. Find opportunities through SECOP II alerts, buyers’ annual procurement plans (published on SECOP) and open data.
3. Check two things in the notice:
   • whether a trade agreement applies;
   • whether the process could become Mipyme-only (below).
4. Comment on the draft documents within the 10- or 5-day window, and attend the clarification hearing in licitación.
5. File an expression of interest if it’s a selección abreviada de menor cuantía.
6. Build your offer in SECOP II:
   • legal-capacity documents (apostilled public documents, simple copies, translations);
   • experience certificates and financials;
   • the economic offer, in a separate envelope for public works;
   • the bid guarantee.
7. Fix defects when asked. Requirements that don’t affect scoring can be cured up to the end of the evaluation-report comment period; scored elements can’t. Then submit your observations on the evaluation report.
8. Award, at a public hearing in licitación. It’s irrevocable. Then:
   • sign electronically on SECOP II;
   • post the performance guarantee;
   • set up a branch if required;
   • deliver official translations.

Guarantees and payment

Forms: an insurance policy, a trust (patrimonio autónomo), or a bank guarantee or stand-by letter of credit. Bank instruments must come from a bank authorised by Colombia’s Superintendencia Financiera, and must be on first demand and irrevocable. Guarantees are optional in minimum-value purchases.

Payment: there’s no general legal deadline for the state to pay contractors; it’s set in the tender documents or contract. If late-payment interest isn’t agreed, the default is twice the legal civil interest rate on the inflation-adjusted amount.

How offers are scored, and who gets preference

• National industry (Ley 816):
  • 10–20% of points go to offers of Colombian goods or services;
  • 5–15% go to foreign offers that include Colombian components;
  • a tie between foreign and Colombian offers goes to the Colombian one;
  • bidders with national treatment (trade agreement, reciprocity, Andean Community) get the same points as Colombians;
  • the points don’t apply to reverse auctions or minimum-value purchases.
• Mipyme-only calls: a process below US$125,000 (COP 511,708,497 in 2026) becomes reserved for Colombian Mipymes at least a year old if two of them ask. Foreign firms are then excluded.
• Other bonuses:
  • up to 0.25% for Mipymes;
  • up to 2% for employing people with disabilities (updated by Decreto 0287 de 2026);
  • 0.25% for enterprises of young people leaving state care (Ley 2479 de 2025);
  • women-owned enterprise criteria in tie-breaks.

Challenging a decision

• During the process: you can object to the draft and final tender documents and to the evaluation report. Answers are published on SECOP.
• The award is irrevocable, and there’s no administrative appeal against it. It can be revoked only if an incompatibility arises before signature or it was obtained illegally.
• In court: the administrative courts, generally within 4 months for pre-contractual decisions; after signature, through a contract-dispute action. Colombia has no specialised procurement tribunal.
• Oversight bodies (Procuraduría, Contraloría) can intervene but don’t decide your claim.

What changed in 2025–2026

• The minimum wage rose 23% for 2026, to COP 1,750,905, so every threshold set in SMMLV rose in pesos.
• New trade-agreement thresholds for 2026–27, and the Mipyme limit at COP 511,708,497.
• Decreto 0287 de 2026 rewrote disability preferences.
• Ley 2479 de 2025 added a bonus for enterprises of young people leaving state care.
• Standard documents for social-infrastructure works were issued in 2025.

Live Colombian tenders

See also which countries can bid on which government tenders.

Questions

Sources

• Colombia Compra Eficiente (Agencia Nacional de Contratación Pública)
• SECOP II
• Decreto 1082 de 2015, compiled (Función Pública)
• Ley 80 de 1993 (Secretaría del Senado)
• Ley 816 de 2003 (Secretaría del Senado)

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.