How do public tenders work in Montenegro?

Law and buyers

Public procurement in Montenegro is governed by the Law on Public Procurement (Zakon o javnim nabavkama), published in Službeni list Crne Gore 74/19 and amended in 2023 (3/23 and 11/23) and in July 2026 (98/26, in force since 17 July 2026) and September 2026 (132/26, in force since 17 September 2026). The law is modelled on the EU procurement directives, and Montenegro provisionally closed EU negotiating Chapter 5 on public procurement on 27 June 2025. The law applies to state bodies, municipalities, public services and state-controlled companies, plus sectoral buyers in utilities. Policy, rules and supervision sit with the Ministry of Finance through its Directorate for Public Procurement Policy (Direktorat za politiku javnih nabavki). Legal protection is handled by an independent body, the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures (Komisija za zaštitu prava u postupcima javnih nabavki).[1][2][3][8]

Where tenders are published

All procurement under the law runs through the electronic public procurement system, called ESJN in the law and operated as CeJN at cejn.gov.me. Contracting authorities publish procurement plans, tender documents, decisions and contracts there, and bids are submitted through the same system. Montenegro is not an EU member, so its tenders do not appear on TED. To follow notices and take part, an economic operator must register on CeJN and send the Directorate a registration form, either signed and stamped by post or signed with a certified electronic signature by email; the Directorate's administrators then approve the account. The data in the form and in the system must match exactly. Small simple purchases below the law's thresholds follow separate Ministry rules.[1][5][6]

Procedures and thresholds

The law lists seven procedures: the open procedure (otvoreni postupak), the restricted procedure (ograničeni postupak), the competitive procedure with negotiation (konkurentski postupak sa pregovorima), the negotiated procedure without prior publication, the innovation partnership, the competitive dialogue (konkurentski dijalog) and, for sectoral buyers, the negotiated procedure with prior publication. The open procedure is the most common and can be used for any purchase. Below the law's thresholds, buyers use simple procurement (jednostavne nabavke), whose method and monitoring are set by the Ministry of Finance. The full procedures apply from twenty-five thousand euro for goods and services and from forty thousand euro for works. A higher value band sets longer minimum tender periods, and separate EU-level value classes are published by the Ministry.[1][2]

Documents and language

Every bidder, every member of a joint bid and every subcontractor submits an economic operator's statement (izjava privrednog subjekta), the Montenegrin counterpart of the ESPD, in electronic form on the Ministry template. It serves as preliminary proof that the bidder is not excluded and meets the selection criteria. Only the best-ranked bidder is then checked, and the evaluation committee may request a criminal record certificate, a tax certificate, an extract from the business register of the country of establishment, a licence for the activity and financial statements for the two previous years. For contracts of forty thousand euro or more, buyers must require a bid guarantee and a performance guarantee. Tenders are prepared in Montenegrin or another language in official use, although the buyer may allow technical parts in a language of international trade.[1]

Deadlines, award and challenges

In open procedures, the minimum period for tenders is 15 days from publication of the tender documents for goods and services below 150,000 euro and works below 500,000 euro, and 30 days above those values; for urgent cases it can be cut to 15 days. Restricted procedures use the same periods for requests to participate. Buyers must choose the economically most advantageous tender on the basis of price, price-quality ratio or life-cycle cost. There is no separate standstill period: the award decision becomes enforceable only after the appeal deadline, ten days from its publication, has passed, and the contract cannot be signed before that. Appeals go to the Commission for the Protection of Rights, cost a fee of 1 percent of the estimated value up to 20,000 euro, and suspend the procedure. Its decisions can be challenged before the Administrative Court.[1][7]

How to win a tender in Montenegro

Montenegro's Law on Public Procurement requires buyers to choose the economically most advantageous tender, based on price, life-cycle cost or the best price-quality ratio, with the criteria and weighting stated in the tender documents. Where quality criteria apply, answer each one separately and concretely. Under Article 95 you can request clarification, or a change, of the tender documents in writing during the tender period and no later than ten days before the deadline; the buyer publishes the clarification on CeJN as soon as possible and at the latest five days after your request. A clarification may not change the documents, so raise real defects early, also because appeals against the documents have their own short deadlines. To know the buyer, read its procurement plan, earlier tender documents, decisions and contracts on CeJN. Submit the economic operator's statement on the Ministry template, follow the required language and format, and budget for bid and performance guarantees on larger contracts. Late, incomplete, unguaranteed or abnormally low bids fail. After the award decision is published you can request access to the complete electronic file on CeJN, granted within two days for at least 24 hours (Article 145), before the ten-day appeal period ends.[1][2][6]

1. Note the award criterion and weighting in the tender documents.
2. Request clarification on CeJN at least ten days before the deadline.
3. Read the buyer's plan, earlier decisions and contracts on CeJN.
4. Complete the economic operator's statement on the official template.
5. Arrange bid and performance guarantees for contracts of forty thousand euro or more.
6. Request file access on CeJN right after the award decision.

Clarification round: Request for clarification of the tender documents (zahtjev za pojašnjenje tenderske dokumentacije)

Tips for bidders

Register on CeJN well before your first deadline, because an administrator at the Directorate has to approve your account after receiving the signed registration form. Read the tender documentation for the required language and any permission to submit technical documents in English. Appeals against the tender documents must be lodged early, within ten or twenty days of publication depending on the tender period, so raise problems quickly. A foreign appellant must appoint an agent in Montenegro to receive documents or name another fast way of service. Prepare your criminal record and tax certificates in advance, since they are requested quickly once you are ranked first. Budget for bid and performance guarantees on larger contracts.[1][5][7]

Platforms in Montenegro

This country does not publish on TED, so there are no shares. These are the platforms from our market map, public ones first.

• CeJN (Montenegro)

  Register on cejn.gov.me and send the signed registration form by post or e-signed email; you can work in the system once administrators approve it.

  How it works →Website

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Zakon o javnim nabavkama, consolidated text (Sl. list CG 74/19, 3/23, 11/23), gov.me
2. Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o javnim nabavkama, Sl. list CG 98/2026 (in force 17 July 2026)
3. Zakon o izmjeni i dopuni Zakona o javnim nabavkama, Sl. list CG 132/2026 (in force 17 September 2026)
4. Direktorat za politiku javnih nabavki, Ministarstvo finansija
5. Directorate notice: registration of economic operators on the electronic public procurement system
6. CeJN, electronic public procurement system of Montenegro
7. Komisija za zaštitu prava u postupcima javnih nabavki
8. Government of Montenegro: Montenegro closes Chapter 5 Public Procurement (27 June 2025)

Checked on 15 October 2026. Made by TenderRender from official sources. Not legal advice: check the notice and documents of each tender.

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