Responsibility for Violations in Request for Price Quotations in Public Procurement

One of the legislatively established methods of public procurement, in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Public Procurement", is the request for price quotations.

This method is used for the procurement of homogeneous goods, works, and services, if the annual volume of procurement in monetary terms does not exceed eight thousand times the monthly calculation index (MCI) established for the relevant fiscal year. In this case, the main criterion for selecting the supplier is the price.

According to the Rules for Conducting Public Procurement, the procurement organizer is required to publish the relevant information on the public procurement web portal in Kazakh and Russian languages no later than two working days before the deadline for submitting price quotations.

At the same time, according to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Public Procurement", the published information during procurement via the request for price quotations method must not contain references to trademarks, service marks, brand names, patents, utility models, industrial designs, the name of the place of origin of the goods, the name of the manufacturer, or any other characteristics that identify the purchased goods, works, or services as belonging to a particular potential supplier, except in the following cases:

• for completing, upgrading, and retrofitting the main (installed) equipment, as well as installed software (licensed software);
• to determine the provider of goods under a leasing agreement, and when it is necessary to provide a detailed description of the leased item;
• for the repair and/or maintenance of goods already owned by the customer;
• for the procurement of technical auxiliary (compensatory) aids, cochlear implants, medicines, and specialized medical nutrition products, if they are procured for use by patients with medical indications (such as individual intolerance or life-threatening conditions), confirmed by medical consilium conclusions and medical-genetic opinions;
• for the procurement of homogeneous goods available on the market, the cost of which does not exceed one thousand times the MCI, as established in the law on the republican budget for the relevant fiscal year.

Since the beginning of 2025, during camerral control, the Department identified 40 cases of prohibited information being published in the course of public procurement by means of the request for price quotations method, totaling 248 million tenge.

These actions fall under risk profile No. 9 and result in administrative liability in accordance with Part 1 of Article 207 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Indicating trademarks and other characteristics that directly or indirectly point to a specific supplier restricts competition, excludes fair participants, and leads to an unjustified increase in the cost of purchased goods and services.

To prevent violations and ensure transparency in public procurement, it is recommended to strictly comply with legal requirements, accurately describe the subject of procurement, and ensure equal conditions for all potential suppliers.

Responsibility for compliance with public procurement legislation lies with each contracting authority.