The organisation responsible for public procurement in Chile is called ChileCompra. Some 850 public entities, including ministries, hospitals, municipalities, and the armed forces buy their supplies via the official website called Mercado Publico. This website acts as a trading platform, where suppliers pre-register and can then bid to supply the tenders posted on the web platform. It is designed to give clarity and transparency to the public procurement process and currently hosts around 114,000 suppliers.
Small construction and maintenance works can also be bid for on the Chile Compra platform, but larger infrastructure projects and concessions are managed by the Ministry of Public Works (MOP). MOP operates under a set of rules and regulations which guide the participation of both national and international private contractors who wish to bid for contracts which form part of the annual plan of works, funded from their internal budget. See ways to participate in public works projects.
When the work in question is particularly complex, big or expensive MOP has a separate set of rules for bidding for Concession contracts, which are adjudicated by national or international tendering processes.
They advertise that:
● It is not necessary to be a Chilean company to participate, but if the bidder wins the contract they must register and be incorporated in Chile.
● The tenders are defined with objective parameters, clearly stated in the tender documents. This allows the participation of new entrants.
● The state offers guarantees in the concession tenders, such as guaranteed minimum incomes, which deals with the risk of demand fluctuations in the project and hence helps with raising finance.
