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The Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance has adopted extensive amendments to the Rules for Public Procurement (Orders No. 749 of 4 December 2025 and No. 791 of 19 December 2025).
The changes are aimed at deep automation of processes through the National Catalogue of Goods, tightening financial stability requirements and revising evaluation criteria in construction.
I. Amendments that came into force on 19 December 2025
1. Transition to the National Catalogue of Goods (hereinafter referred to as “NCG”)
The main change is the replacement of the Electronic Catalogue with the NCG.
At the same time, public procurement will continue to be carried out through the Electronic Store (as a trading platform), which will now publish information from the NCG.
2. Online Store Policy
The following strict time frames for conducting operations have been introduced:
- Working period: Orders in the Online Store are formed and processed only on working days from 08:00 a.m. to 08:00 p.m. (Astana time).
- Protocols (minutes): New forms of summary reports (Appendices No. 7 and 7-1) have been approved, which include details of the selected goods from the NKT and the transaction ID.
3. Automatic complaint filtering
If a complaint is filed on the basis of Article 7 of the Law, but the supplier has not attached supporting documents or has violated the deadlines, the system automatically rejects such an appeal without consideration by the employees of the authorised body.
II. Changes effective from 1 January 2026
1. New financial stability and audit requirements for construction and installation works exceeding 400 000 monthly calculation indices for the current year, i.e. more than 1 730 000 000 tenge.
With regard to this category of procurement, the mechanism for confirming financial stability (hereinafter referred to as “FS”) has been significantly tightened:
- Audit period
- Rating of audit firms
- Application submitting period
Audited financial statements for the previous three years will be taken into account for participation in tenders (for example, for purchases in 2026, information for 2022, 2023 and 2024 will be checked).
Only reports from auditors who have received a rating of at least “4” in the external quality control assessment conducted by the Professional Council for Auditing Activities will be accepted. Reports from auditors with lower ratings will not be accepted by the system for calculating the FS.
Information should be submitted to the Financial Reporting Depository by 30 September. However, a transition period has been established for reporting for 2022–2024: data should be entered into the database by 15 April 2026.
2. Procurement in turnkey construction (EPC contracts)
For procurements involving both design and construction (EPC models), new evaluation criteria have been introduced:
|
Evaluation criteria |
The essence (meaning) of the change and requirements |
|---|---|
|
Experience threshold |
The supplier should have experience in performing similar work worth at least 50% of the budget allocated for the current procurement. |
|
Bonus for self-financing |
A rule has been introduced whereby a supplier willing to implement a project using its own funds (with subsequent payment by the customer) receives 50 conditional points. In this case, other non-price criteria do not apply. |
|
Energy efficiency |
Buildings should have an energy efficiency rating (no lower than “B”). The relevant certificates should be attached to the application. |
|
Local content |
The share of locally sourced goods in the estimate should be at least a certain percentage (depending on the type of facility), which directly affects the calculation of the conditional discount. |
3. Anti-dumping and tax accounting
Intellectual property services: The price for services providing rights to use content (broadcasting) is considered dumping if it is lower than the minimum remuneration rates established by copyright law (in accordance with Order No. 400 of the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 22 June 2023 “On the approval of minimum rates of copyright remuneration for certain types of use of works”).
VAT in tenders: When calculating the ‘lowest price’, the portal will automatically convert (reflect) the prices of VAT payers and non-payers to a comparable form so that the supplier's tax regime does not give an unfair advantage when comparing price offers.
III. Recommendations for businesses:
Nota bene (for your information):
If you need expert support to participate (join) in public procurements, we are ready to provide you professional assistance and support.