Contracting with a public body after a tender

When a ministry, a governorate or a state company contracts for a project, a supply or a service financed from the budget, the Civil Code is not the only text that governs the file. The path is set by Public Contracts Execution Instructions No. 1 of 2025, the instructions now in force, issued by the Ministry of Planning, published in Official Gazette issue 4849 on 17 November 2025, and expressed to come into force ninety days after publication. The Law Office of Ali Barakat in Baghdad reads that path: from the tender announcement, to the award decision, and then to an objection filed in time.

This field sets out the general framework. The page on what replaced the 2014 instructions explains the move from the earlier instrument. The page on objecting to an award sets out the committee, the time limit and the effect of filing an objection.

Who is the contracting authority, and what are public contracts?

Article 1 of the Instructions defines a "contracting authority" to include the Presidency of the Republic, the Council of Representatives, the Council of Ministers, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Federal Supreme Court, the ministries, entities not attached to a ministry, the independent commissions and their formations authorised to contract; and also the Region, the governorates, administrative units, governorate councils and their formations authorised to contract; and state companies when they carry out projects listed in the investment programme or financed from the federal public budget or from their own budget.

Public contracts, in the same article, are contracts concluded by a contracting authority as the first party, financed from investment, current or planning budgets, to obtain goods, works or services. The Instructions distinguish public works contracts, public supply contracts, consultancy-service contracts and non-consultancy-service contracts. The type of contract is taken from its subject-matter, because some rules on announcement and on methods of contracting differ accordingly.

The Public Government Contracts Department at the Ministry of Planning is the formation which, as the Ministry describes it on its site, provides opinion and advice on public contracting, standard documents, and follow-up connected with the blacklist and contracting plans. Decisions in a particular file are issued by the contracting authority and its committees.

Methods of contracting, within the text

The starting point in article 6 is the public tender: an announcement inviting all those who meet the conditions of participation, with procedures that are public, competitive, fair, open and transparent, and with regard to the financial ceilings that the Instructions set. Article 6 also allows the head of the contracting authority, or a person authorised by the head, on a proposal from the head of the contracts administration, to choose another method in the cases the article describes, including a limited tender, a two-stage tender, and other methods set out in the same article.

Every paragraph of article 6 is read from the official text. The method is read from the tender documents and from the contracting authority's decision, after reading the text in force. Announcement of national and international tenders is organised by article 8, including publication of national tenders on the unified electronic platform for announcements and tenders and in two widely circulated national newspapers, together with the content the article requires the announcement to contain.

Award, then the contract

After bids are opened and analysed, the "Central Committee for Ratification of the Award" in the official contracting authority ratifies the analysis committee's recommendations or declines to follow them, within the powers listed in article 16. After the award decision is issued, the contracting authority notifies the successful bidder that the contract must be signed within thirty days of notification; for foreign companies that are required to open a branch in Iraq the period is forty-five days from the award decision, under article 17. The authority also informs the other bidders of the decision, of the reasons they were not awarded the contract, and of the possibility of objecting under the procedures in the Instructions.

Until objections filed under article 19 have been resolved, the contracting authority does not sign the contract. The time limit and the committee are set out on the objection page.

Scope of the Instructions and excluded contracts

Article 2 applies the Instructions to contracts concluded by contracting authorities with Iraqi and non-Iraqi parties for public works, consultancy and non-consultancy services, and supply of goods and services listed in the investment or current budgets, and to contracts of state companies carrying out projects financed from the federal public budget or their own budget. The same article excludes three categories: contracts funded by foreign states or by international, regional or non-governmental organisations under special agreements, unless the agreement applies the Instructions; contracts in which state companies, consultancy offices and government laboratories perform obligations as contractor, supplier or consultant; and contracts of the Ministries of Defence and Interior and the security agencies for arms and security or military equipment, which follow rules set by the competent sectoral committee of the Council of Ministers. Article 38 requires contracting authorities to apply the Instructions to contracts whose value exceeds one hundred million dinars. The first things read in a file are therefore the source of funding, the contract value and the capacity of each party.

Securities, default and breach

Article 27 sets the initial security as a lump sum of between one and three per cent of the estimated cost in supply and works contracts, the percentage falling as the cost rises, and accepts it only as a letter of guarantee, a certified cheque, a bill of exchange or a cash deposit within the limits it sets, with government bodies exempt. Article 29 treats the awardee as in default if it fails to sign after a formal notice to sign within fifteen days of being served, without a lawful excuse; if it is shown to have submitted untrue information; if it fails to provide a performance bond in time; or if it does not pay the prescribed charges before signature. After signature, it treats the contractor as in breach in cases including failure to provide the final security, bankruptcy, a court attachment that disables performance, assignment of the work to another, and subcontracting parts of the works without the contracting authority’s approval.

Extension, suspension and delay penalties

Under article 22, the period of performance runs from the commencement date fixed by the contract, and may be extended at the contractor’s request where works are increased or changed, where delay is attributable to the contracting authority, or where exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances beyond the contractor’s control arise. No extension request is accepted after the preliminary taking-over certificate is issued. The contractor may object to an extension decision before the Central Committee for Ratification of the Award within seven working days of notification; the committee must decide within fifteen working days, and silence after that period counts as rejection.

Article 23 governs suspension by written order of the authorised body. If it exceeds ninety days in works contracts, thirty days in supply and non-consultancy services, or sixty days in consultancy services, the contracting authority may, within sixty days of the contractor’s request being recorded, terminate the contract, resume work in whole or in part, or drop the affected items. The suspension period interrupts the contract term and does not count as an extension. Under article 28, delay penalties are set at between ten and twenty-five per cent of the contract value, fixed in its conditions, and are reduced according to the proportion of work completed and taken over.

After signature

Article 30 keeps the contract in force after its performance period ends until every obligation is met, the warranty and maintenance periods expire and the accounts and securities are settled, and lists the ways it ends: termination on completion, consensual termination by an agreement in which each party releases the other, and judicial termination where agreement cannot be reached. If a dispute arises after signature, article 35 starts with amicable settlement through a joint committee of the contracting authority and the contractor, whose minutes are ratified by the head of the contracting authority, then with the help of a neutral party; failing agreement, recourse is to national arbitration under the tender conditions or Civil Procedure Law No. 83 of 1969, to international arbitration with Council of Ministers approval and Iraqi law as the governing law, or to the competent court. The method chosen must be stated at the outset in the tender documents.

A request to place a defaulting contractor on the blacklist is organised by article 36, with a reference to Instructions No. 1 of 2015 on the classification of contracting companies and contractors and listing on the blacklist, or whatever replaces them, in the case of Iraqi contractors.

Legal basis and sources

1. Public Contracts Execution Instructions No. 1 of 2025 (Official Gazette No. 4849 of 17/11/2025)
2. Ministry of Planning — Public Government Contracts Department

Frequently asked questions

Topics in this area

• 01What replaced Government Contracts Execution Instructions No. 2 of 2014?How public contracting in Iraq moved from repealed 2014 Instructions No. 2 to Instructions No. 1 of 2025, and what remains of the earlier instrument.
• 02How is an award decision in a public tender objected to?The time limit to object to an award, the committee that hears it, and the effect on signing, under article 19 of Instructions No. 1 of 2025.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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