The Procurement Act 2003
The principal statute is the Procurement Act 2003 (Act No. 8 of 2003). It was brought into effect in November 2004 by ministerial order. It has since been amended, including in 2010 and 2019, and is supplemented by regulations, including regulations made in 2004, 2016 and 2019, the Suspension and Debarment Regulations 2019, and the Register of Bidders Regulations (Regulations No. 23 of 2022). A bidder or contractor should work from the Act as amended, and from the current regulations, rather than from the 2003 text alone.
The National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) is established under section 16(1) of the Act. Tender administration and the conduct of public procurement are organised through the NPTA and the relevant tender boards. The Public Procurement Commission has constitutional and statutory oversight functions. Notices and electronic procurement are published through eprocure.gov.gy. The official L.R.O. 1/2022 chapter is Cap. 73:05. It reprints the Procurement Act and the Procurement Regulations 2004 (Regulations No. 9 of 2004). A note in that chapter records that the Procurement (Amendment) Act 2019 (Act No. 14 of 2019) has been omitted from the reprinted text. Methods and thresholds should therefore be confirmed against the Act as amended, including by Act No. 14 of 2019, and against any later amending regulations; the figures below are those printed in the 2004 Regulations as they appear in the 2022 chapter, and should not be assumed, without that further check, to be the figures now in force.
The Act itself provides for methods of procurement, including open tendering (section 25), restricted tendering (section 26), and request for quotations (section 27). Under the 2004 Regulations as printed in Cap. 73:05, regulation 5 and Schedule 1 set threshold values (expressed in millions of Guyana dollars) for the review of contract-award recommendations by the various tender boards: the National Board reviews all contracts exceeding the maximum for the other boards; Regional Boards review goods and services (other than consulting) of 0.25–6.0, construction of 0.6–9.0, and consulting services of 0.4–0.5; Ministerial, Departmental and Agency Boards review goods and services of 0.25–0.6, construction of 0.6–1.0, and consulting services of 0.4–0.5; and the Boards of the Ministry of Public Works and Communication and of the Ministry of Agriculture review goods and services of 1.0–4.0, construction of 1.0–8.0, and consulting services of 1.0–3.0. Award decisions below those values are the responsibility of the procuring entity. Regulation 6 and Schedule 2 set the threshold values below which methods other than open tendering may be used: for restricted tendering under section 26(1)(b), $1,000,000 for goods and services (other than consulting services) and $5,000,000 for construction; for request for quotations under section 27(1), $800,000; and for the community-based method under section 29, $1,500,000. Regulation 7 provides for the Administration to report annually to the Minister on whether those threshold values should be adjusted.
The Public Procurement Commission Tribunal Act (Cap. 73:06, Act No. 8 of 2004; the official chapter records the date 31 May 2007) establishes a Tribunal to hear appeals. By section 8(1), an appeal lies to the Tribunal from any decision made by the Public Procurement Commission in the carrying out of its functions under article 212AA of the Constitution. An appeal may be brought within thirty days of receipt of the decision or of the date on which the appellant otherwise came to know of it, whichever is earlier; the Tribunal may entertain a later appeal if satisfied that there was reasonable cause for the delay. Section 20 provides for an appeal to the Court of Appeal from decisions of the Tribunal. By section 23, a decision of the Tribunal on any such appeal is binding on the Commission and on all parties to the appeal, unless the Tribunal grants a stay under section 21 or the Court of Appeal allows the appeal.
The Small Business Act (Cap. 89:06), as described more fully in the firm’s [note on investment incentives](/insights/investment-incentives-and-foreign-investment-legislation-in-guyana), requires the Government to use its best endeavours to ensure that at least twenty per cent of its annual procurement of goods, services and works is obtained from small businesses, at competitive prices and in accordance with the Procurement Act. Bid protest, and suspension or debarment, remain matters of the Act and the current regulations, and should be confirmed in their current form for the particular contract.
A bidder should examine, for each procurement, the eligibility criteria, instructions to bidders, specifications, bid-security requirements, evaluation methodology, the form of contract, and the review procedures that are actually available. Registration on a register of bidders, or any prequalification, should not be assumed to guarantee eligibility for a particular tender. The Register of Bidders Regulations (Regulations No. 23 of 2022) should be read with the other current regulations, including those on suspension and debarment. Foreign bidders should also confirm any local-participation, joint-venture or agent requirements stated in the tender documents, and should not assume that a form used in another jurisdiction will satisfy the particular invitation.
Infrastructure and public-private partnerships
This review has not identified a dedicated public-private partnership statute in force in Guyana as at November 2026. An infrastructure project that is let by the State, or by a procuring entity under the Act, is in general subject to the Procurement Act 2003 unless another written law provides a different procedure for that project or that entity. Policy documents are not a substitute for a statute. Parties considering a long-term concession, availability-payment or similar structure should identify the exact statutory power under which the public party is contracting, the procurement method that must be used, and any sector statute (for example in electricity, ports or roads) that also applies.
Foreign bidders will also need to consider, separately, company or external-company registration, tax, immigration and, where the work is in a regulated sector, the applicable licensing regime. Those requirements are not waived merely because the contract is a public one.