How to bid for government tenders in Jordan.

Jordan at a glance

Who buys, and where

• Two central departments. The Government Procurement Department buys supplies, medicines and consulting under the Minister of Finance. The Government Tenders Department buys works and engineering services under the Minister of Public Works.
• Policy. A Cabinet Procurement Policy Committee sets policy and standard documents.
• JONEPS. The national e-procurement portal, run by both departments. It’s bilingual and publishes invitations, awards, annual plans and complaint decisions.
• Not covered: investment purchases, strategic stocks such as fuel and wheat, and Hajj and Umrah purchases. Municipalities have their own committees, and defence buying is separate. Donor-financed projects follow the lender’s rules.

Procedures and value ceilings

Open tender is the default. Limited tenders, two-stage tenders, requests for quotations and single-source purchases need a justification. Any method can end with an electronic reverse auction.

There’s no value threshold that triggers an open tender. The amounts below, in Jordanian dinars, decide which committee runs the purchase:

• Limited tenders are allowed for supplies up to JOD 10,000, in urgency, or after a failed open tender, with at least 3 invitees.
• Bidding time. At least 21 days for local tenders and 30 days for international tenders, shortenable if justified.
• Bid validity is 90 days by default.
• Framework agreements last up to 5 years. They can be closed to the original suppliers, or open to new compliant suppliers.
• Tender documents cost from JOD 25 up to a cap of JOD 5,000, depending on value.

Who can bid

• Local versus international. A local tender is open only to Jordanian bidders. An international tender is open to Jordanian and foreign bidders. Buying from abroad is allowed only when:
  • local suppliers lack the qualifications, or their prices are unreasonable;
  • health, drug, food, economic or cyber security is at stake;
  • there’s an emergency.
• No local agent needed for goods or services. JONEPS treats an agent as optional, and any nationality can register.
• No brand names. Specifications can’t name brands or require a country of origin without adding “or equivalent”.
• Works.
  • Joint venture: under the Construction Contractors Law, construction contracts generally go to Jordanian contractors. Foreign contractors can take part through a partnership or joint venture with a classified Jordanian contractor. The exceptions are specialised projects approved by the Cabinet, loan-financed projects, or where the public interest requires.
  • Registration: foreign contractors must also register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Jordanian Construction Contractors Association, employ Jordanians, and benefit from reciprocity.
  • In practice: works tenders often require a joint venture with a Grade 1 Jordanian contractor.
• Consortia are allowed where the documents permit, with joint liability and a lead member.
• Language. International tender documents can be in Arabic or English, and Arabic prevails where both exist. Local tenders are in Arabic.
• Documents. Jordan isn’t in the Apostille Convention, so foreign documents generally need full consular legalisation.
• Treaties. Jordan is a WTO GPA observer, not a party. The US–Jordan FTA has no procurement market-access commitments.

Every document, step by step. Who issues each certificate, who can get it for you, what it costs and how long it stays valid: Every step to bid in Jordan.

The 20% local preference

• What changed. On 8 June 2026 the Cabinet raised the price preference for Jordanian industrial products from 15% to 20%.
• Who must apply it. Ministries, departments, public institutions, universities, municipalities and majority state-owned companies, where the products meet the specifications. Exemptions need coordination with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply.
• Disclosure. Tender documents must disclose any preference margin used in evaluation.
• Ties. A local product wins a tie after the preference.
• Open questions. We couldn’t confirm exactly how the 20% is applied, or how “Jordanian industrial product” is defined.

Bidding, step by step

1. Find an international tender on JONEPS.
2. Register on JONEPS as a company, with GPD for goods and services or GTD for works. Enter your nationality, any agent, bank details and product codes, and accept the e-procurement instructions. We couldn’t confirm how non-resident firms complete the tax, social-security and Jordanian bank fields.
3. For works, line up a joint venture with a classified Jordanian contractor, and plan your registrations.
4. Buy the tender documents by the deadline: only buyers of the documents can bid. 2026 tenders take electronic payment through eFAWATEERcom or Jordanian bank apps.
5. Ask questions within the stated time. Answers go to all bidders.
6. Arrange the bid security from a bank operating in Jordan. Some tenders want the original delivered by hand before the deadline.
7. Submit technical and financial bids electronically on JONEPS, in separate envelopes. Paper bids are rejected.
8. Bid opening is public: technical bids first, then the prices of technically qualified bidders.
9. Watch the provisional award, published for 5 to 7 working days, and object if needed.
10. If you win, pay the fees, provide the performance security and sign within the stated period, or you may lose your bid security.

Guarantees and payment

• Bid security. 1% to 3% of the bid or estimate, and mandatory in open tenders. You lose it if you withdraw or change your bid after the deadline, refuse an arithmetic correction, or give false information.
• Performance security. At least 10% of the award value.
• Maintenance security. 3% to 5% of the supply or final works value.
• Advance payments need an unconditional bank guarantee for 100% of the advance.
• Banks. All guarantees must be bank guarantees or certified cheques from a bank operating in Jordan. We couldn’t confirm whether foreign banks’ counter-guarantees are accepted.
• Payment is made against payment claims, with interim payments, retention and advances as the contract allows. We found no statutory payment deadline.
• Penalties. Prices are fixed unless the contract has an adjustment formula, and delay penalties are capped at 15%.

How bids are evaluated

• Published criteria only. Only the criteria published in the documents count, and they must be measurable. They can include price, delivery, running costs and any disclosed preference margin.
• Price weight. In weighted technical and financial scoring, price should generally count for no more than 50%.
• Abnormally low bids must be explained, and can be rejected if the explanation isn’t credible.
• Arithmetic. Unit prices prevail over totals, and words over figures.
• Quantities. Before award, the committee can change quantities by up to 25%.

Challenging a decision

• Step 1: objection. Object to the buyer or procurement committee.
  • Documents, notice or prequalification: within 5 working days of publication, and before the bid deadline.
  • Award decisions: within the period the committee sets. The provisional award is published for 5 to 7 working days.
  • Decision time: within 7 working days for works, and up to 14 for supplies.
• Step 2: complaint. Complain to the Cabinet-appointed Procurement Complaints Review Committee within 5 working days of the objection decision, with a JOD 500 fee.
  • Suspension: once accepted, the procedure is normally suspended, unless the public interest requires otherwise.
  • Decision: binding, within 30 working days. The Committee can correct steps, cancel the award or order a re-run. Its decisions are published on JONEPS.
• Court. Whether its decisions can go straight to the administrative courts wasn’t confirmed.
• Contract disputes go to Jordanian courts. International arbitration needs Cabinet approval before the contract is signed.
• Debarment lasts up to 2 years and can be challenged at the Review Committee.

What changed in 2024–2026

• December 2024 – March 2025: new standard bidding documents for supplies, and a guide to negotiation procedures, were posted on JONEPS.
• 8 June 2026: the preference for Jordanian industrial products rose from 15% to 20%.
• 2026: central tenders require electronic-only bids and electronic payment of document fees. The Government Tenders Department is digitising contractor classification and licensing.
• Rules in force. We found no new procurement bylaw in 2025–2026, so Bylaw 8/2022 and its 2022 amendment still apply. We couldn’t read that amendment’s text.

Live Jordanian tenders

See also which countries can bid on which government tenders.

Questions

Sources

• Government Procurement Bylaw No. 8 of 2022 (Arabic)
• Instructions Regulating Government Procurement Procedures 2022 (Arabic)
• JONEPS: Jordan Online E-Procurement System
• Construction Contractors Law (English, Government Tenders Department)
• Petra: Cabinet raises industrial preference in tenders to 20% (June 2026)
• WTO: parties and observers to the GPA

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.