Every step to bid in Uruguay.

This guide is the checklist behind a bid in Uruguay: each registration, document and signature, in the order a tender needs them, and who can lawfully handle each one. For how Uruguayan procurement works overall (thresholds, procedures, evaluation, guarantees and challenges), see How to bid for public tenders in Uruguay.

Before you bid

1. Open your RUPE record (EN INGRESO). Every supplier to the Uruguayan state has to be in the Registro Único de Proveedores del Estado, run by ARCE. Signing up online through “Registrarse como Proveedor” gives the status EN INGRESO, which already lets you quote online in most procedures.

• Cost and time: done online the same day; no fee appears in ARCE’s material.
• What you use: your RUT, a foreign tax code, NIE, cédula or foreign ID.
• Who does it: you do, with an e-mail address your company controls. RUPE sends the user code and password to that main e-mail, which also receives legal notices and, later, the SICE password you bid with. An adviser can prepare all the data for you.
• From abroad: pick “Código Fiscal extranjero” and “Entidad no residente (persona jurídica del exterior)”; your user code becomes the three-letter ISO code of your country followed by your tax code.

2. Fill in the supplier record (Mi Ficha). General data, representatives and owners, bank accounts, products and documents. Because RUPE has a single supplier login, you enter or approve each entry yourself; an adviser drafts them and the documents behind them. The validity is open-ended, but you must keep the information current.

3. A bank account in RUPE. At least one account is mandatory, and the State pays only into accounts registered in RUPE. You declare it in Formulario 0 (see the award section below) and back it with a bank statement or constancia showing the holder, bank, number, branch, type and currency; it is entered in the “Cuentas Bancarias” tab in the number format of that bank. Once validated, an account can’t be edited, only removed and added again.

4. Your DGI registration (Uruguayan companies). You upload the RUT registration proof (constancia 6351, or the digital 6951) and the data-confirmation form (6361, or the digital 6906) under FORMULARIOS DGI. The digital versions need no paper original. Your accountant downloads them the same day. The company name RUPE shows is taken from the DGI and can’t be changed in RUPE.

5. Tax, social-security and insurance status, read automatically. RUPE’s Certificados tab pulls in your standing with the DGI (tax), the Banco de Previsión Social (BPS) and, for employers, the Banco de Seguros del Estado (BSE) work-accident insurance, each with its expiry date. Buying agencies may not ask you for a certificate RUPE already holds.

• Who does it: your contador público keeps filings and payments current; an accountant or insurance broker keeps the BSE policy alive. Pressing “Consultar certificados” refreshes the tab.
• What only you do: pay the taxes, contributions and premiums.
• Professionals: certificates from the CJPPU or CNSS are uploaded by hand.

6. RNEOP registration, for public works. Bidders for public works and concessions must be in the Registro Nacional de Empresas de Obras Públicas of the Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas (Decreto 208/009). Above the licitación abreviada cap, the register sets a capacity (VECA) from your 3-year average income, your financial ratios and your compliance history.

• The file: a sworn declaration with notarised certification covering identity, legal status, representation, group and insolvency history, plus BPS and DGI certificates; an accountant’s certificate of income by project; financial statements with at least a limited-review report, matching your DGI filings (small-regime firms give an accountant’s certificate instead); and the details of your technical representative.
• Technical representative: every registered contractor names an engineer or architect with a degree from the Universidad de la República, or a revalidated one, covering the specialties it seeks.
• Validity: up to 1 year, tied to your fiscal-year close and the statements.
• Who does it: your accountant and engineer prepare it; you sign the sworn declaration before a notary.

7. SME status, if you want the SME preferences. DINAPYME, part of the Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Minería, issues two different documents. The MIPYME classification certificate proves micro, small or medium size and appears in RUPE automatically, but it does not unlock procurement preferences. For those you need the Certificado de Participación in the public-procurement subprogramme, which states your MIPYME status, a management-improvement process and, for services with goods or works, your national-integration percentage. Your accountant prepares the applications; you sign them.

With your bid

8. The online offer in SICE. Calls with online bidding have an “Ofertar en línea” button on comprasestatales.gub.uy. It is free.

• The login: your RUPE supplier number, a supplier password that is separate from the RUPE password and is sent to the RUPE main e-mail, and a second factor from your own authenticator app. There is one such credential per supplier, so the person who logs in is you.
• The files: technical, economic and confidential parts kept separate (TOCAF article 65), written in Spanish. An adviser prepares every file and reviews the printed offer PDF before the deadline.
• Saving and opening: you upload and save; the offer can be changed until the deadline and is opened electronically (APEL), in one or two stages.
• Status: EN INGRESO is enough, except for pregón, which needs ACTIVO.
• From abroad: the same process; your provider number begins with your country’s ISO code.

9. A bid-maintenance guarantee, where required. Only offers at or above the licitación abreviada cap, UYU 13,705,000 in 2026, need one, for a fixed amount the pliego sets. It can be a bank fianza or aval, a surety-insurance policy, or a deposit of cash or public securities, and stays valid for the period the pliego states. Its amount doesn’t have to match the offer amount you type into SICE. You apply for and sign the instrument; a foreign bidder uses the same forms and follows the pliego for delivery.

10. Preference declarations. A preference is never applied unless you claim it expressly in the offer.

• National industry: the Annex I/II declaration, signed by someone with sufficient powers, with the national content worked out by your accountant. Services that include imported goods must declare the non-national share, or the benefit is lost.
• SME subprogramme: state in the offer that you join it (and invoke the quantity reserve if you want it), attach the DINAPYME Certificado de Participación and add a sworn declaration of national character signed by a representative with powers.

11. A consortium, if you bid jointly. The offer states the intention to form a consortium. In a “typical” consortium each member keeps its own RUPE registration; an “atypical” one with its own DGI RUT registers as a sociedad de hecho. A lawyer drafts the consortium agreement and each member signs it.

If you’re in line for award

Only the winning bidder proves it can contract, after the award act and before notification, and the agency can’t ask for documents it can see in RUPE. What it does need is your record at ACTIVO: you deliver the originals at any RUPE Punto de Atención, and a state escribano of the contracting agency validates them. There is no fixed time; the agency validates after the bids are opened, and the status-check button in RUPE lists anything still missing. Anyone can hand in the originals for you.

Statutes alone don’t prove representation. The notarial certificate has to spell out who represents the company and whether they act jointly or severally.

Signing electronically instead. A representative already validated in RUPE with signing power can sign Formulario 0 through Agesic’s e-signature module, for example with a cédula con chip and PIN, on the same day; each signer has three hours. No one else can use that cédula or PIN.

The carta poder is the lawful way for someone else to sign paper documents and sworn statements for your company. It can list powers to contract, collect payments, withdraw guarantees, give and receive information, sign any document including sworn statements, and sign RUPE documents. Each apoderado must appear in “Representantes y titulares” as Apoderado or Mandatario. It does not give anyone a SICE login.

Before the contract and the first invoice

The performance guarantee (garantía de fiel cumplimiento de contrato). 5% of the award, needed only for awards of UYU 5,482,000 or more in 2026, in the same forms as the bid guarantee. The pliego may let it be topped up by withholding from payments. You apply for and sign it.

The certificate of origin, if you claimed the national preference. File it within 15 business days of the award notice or the award passes to the next bidder. An origin-certifying entity issues it for a fee it sets and the applicant pays; it has 10 business days to decide, and silence means refusal.

Local labour on state public works (Ley 18.516). Notify your labour needs to the local commission within 5 business days of the award notice, then hire non-permanent labourers (peones prácticos, unskilled workers) through it by public lottery: 35% from public work-plan lists, 5% released prisoners, the rest local registrants, and at least 90% Uruguayan citizens. It is free; breaches carry fines of 50–500 UR, and a firm with unpaid fines must settle them before bidding on new state tenders. Your site management notifies the commission.

Signing the contract. The contract is perfected when the award is notified. Any contract document is signed by your representative, or by an apoderado registered in RUPE with the “contratar” power.

Gestión de Contratos. After the purchase order, deliveries, adjustments and rebuttals run through ARCE’s contract-management system. Only the legal representative holding the “Contratación” attribute in RUPE can add collaborators, using each collaborator’s country, ID type and number, and e-mail; each collaborator then works under their own personal ID Uruguay account. It is free and works the same day, and a collaborator stays until the representative removes them.

Payment goes only to a bank account registered in RUPE (step 3).

Who does what

The professionals involved

If your company is from abroad

You don’t need a Uruguayan company to bid, but a foreign winner must set a domicile in Uruguay and some tenders ask for a local representative registered under Ley 16.497; who may bid from abroad, and on what terms, is explained in How to bid for public tenders in Uruguay. For the paperwork:

• Company identity: a notarial certificate issued in Uruguay, or a public document from your home country covering the same points, legalised and legally translated.
• Tax and social security: a certificate from your home authority showing you are compliant and how long that holds. Where no such certificate exists, your representative signs a sworn statement, before a notary, that the company is current and that none is issued; it is apostilled, translated and uploaded as CONSTANCIA DE CUMPLIMIENTO DE OBLIGACIONES TRIBUTARIAS Y PREVISIONALES. The DGI RUT forms don’t apply to a non-resident entity; a foreign firm with a domicile in Uruguay registers as a resident one.
• Powers: a private document is notarised abroad and then protocolised in Uruguay; a public document is protocolised in Uruguay (Ley 18.362 art. 291). Either way it must grant powers for the whole territory of Uruguay.
• Apostille and translation: Uruguay is party to the Hague Apostille Convention (Ley 18.836), and every foreign document needs a legal Spanish translation by a Traductor Público, in original or notarial copy. Work in this order: draft, pre-validation by the agency’s state escribano (an unofficial translation will do), notarisation and apostille at home, official translation in Uruguay, upload with all stamps, delivery of the originals. Each document must reach the Punto de Atención within 60 days of issue.
• Local representative: where the pliego requires one, a representative from the Registro Nacional de Representantes de Firmas Extranjeras uploads its registry constancia as CERTIFICADO NO NOTARIAL, appears in RUPE as “Representante de entidad no residente”, and acts under a protocolised carta poder that you grant.
• Bank account: an account held abroad needs a SWIFT code and no bank constancia.
• Signatures: the Agesic e-signature is generally out of reach without a Uruguayan cédula, so you sign before a notary abroad and apostille.
• Accounts: home-country statements, legalised and translated, converted at the interbank selling rate on the balance-sheet date.
• Works: where an agency wants foreign bidders, a tender-specific encouragement regime lets you request RNEOP registration at least 10 days before opening with a home-registry certificate and no BPS or DGI certificates. To receive the award you need a branch or permanent representation.
• Preferences: foreign goods don’t qualify for the national preference, and the SME programme is open only to certified Uruguayan firms, so a foreign company benefits only by partnering with one.
• Once you work in Uruguay: BSE insurance applies when you employ workers there, and Ley 18.516 hiring applies to your works.

Pitfalls

• Keep the RUPE and SICE passwords yourself. Both are single supplier-level credentials tied to the RUPE main e-mail, which also receives legal notices. Never register with an adviser’s address.
• Your e-signature is personal. A cédula con chip, its PIN and an ID Uruguay account belong to the person named; nobody else may use them.
• Watch document age. Uruguayan notarial documents must be no more than 30 days old and foreign ones no more than 60 days at the Punto de Atención, and foreign drafts should be pre-validated before you legalise them.
• Claim preferences in the offer. The DINAPYME classification certificate alone gets you nothing: you need the Certificado de Participación and a sworn declaration signed by someone with powers.
• Diary the post-award deadlines. The certificate of origin is due within 15 business days of the award notice and the Ley 18.516 labour notice within 5; a missing certificate of origin loses you the award.
• Challenges have their own rules. Send a copy to the Tribunal de Cuentas within 48 hours, and never file a manifestly unfounded challenge: bad-faith appeals can get you suspended from RUPE.
• Innovation-procurement calls are limited to firms based in Uruguay, which may partner with foreign firms.
• A commission agent must be registered. Anyone domiciled in Uruguay who habitually and autonomously promotes a foreign firm’s sales for a commission must register under Ley 16.497.

Doing it with askTender

In Uruguay, RUPE and SICE have a single supplier login with a second factor, so you log in and press submit yourself, in a guided session with askTender. Everything before that is prepared for you. The askTender Desk prepares the RUPE entries, the offer files and the preference declarations, and times the notarial and foreign documents; askTender Partners, such as an escribano, a contador público, an abogado or a traductor público, do the steps their licence covers. You sign only what the law reserves to you: Formulario 0, the powers you grant, your sworn declarations and the contract.

Questions

Sources

• ARCE: RUPE guide for foreign companies
• ARCE: RUPE guide for sociedades comerciales
• ARCE: supplier questions booklet
• ARCE: how to submit an offer online (Cómo ofertar en línea)
• TOCAF article 64: guarantees (IMPO)
• TOCAF article 73: challenges (IMPO)
• Decreto 131/014: standard bidding conditions (IMPO)
• Decreto 371/010: SME public-procurement subprogramme (IMPO)
• Decreto 208/009: MTOP register of public-works companies (IMPO)
• Ley 18.516: local labour on public works (IMPO)

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.