How Should Procurement Training Be Organised in Firms Participating in Tenders?

Summary

For firms that regularly take part in public tenders, setting up a tender unit or department is an important organisational step, but it is not enough on its own. The people working in the unit need regular training on Public Procurement Law No. 4734 (Kamu İhale Kanunu), Public Procurement Contracts Law No. 4735 (Kamu İhale Sözleşmeleri Kanunu), the implementing regulations, the Public Procurement General Communiqué, the Electronic Public Procurement Platform (EKAP) and contract performance.

This article applies to training the approach that treats the tender unit as the centre for bid preparation, document control, contract follow-up and institutional memory. Its main recommendation is that the unit's staff should not be trained only through in-house experience; they should attend courses, lessons, workshops and file-based practical training given by experienced trainers. Training builds general knowledge and procedural skills; it does not replace the legal assessment of a specific dispute.

1. Why does a tender unit need regular training?

A public tender is no longer just a matter of following notices and preparing a bid letter. The tender notice, administrative and technical specifications, draft contract, the Certificate of Participation in the Tender (İhaleye Katılım Belgesi, formerly the qualification information form), work experience certificates, guarantees, EKAP records, electronic signature, electronic bidding, explanations of abnormally low tenders and contract performance are stages that have to be managed together.

Law No. 4734 sets detailed rules on economic and financial standing, professional and technical capacity, work experience, guarantees, bid validity and compliance with the tender documents. A member of the unit therefore needs to do more than prepare the price file: they need to know which document meets which criterion, which information is declared through EKAP and which omission may cause the bid to be rejected.

Law No. 4735 governs the process that begins after the tender is won: invitation to sign the contract, performance guarantee, signature of the contract, handover of the site, start of work, progress payments, price adjustment, time extension, increases and decreases in the scope of work, provisional and final acceptance, termination and debarment. Winning a tender and completing the work as planned are not the same thing; the training programme should cover this second stage as well.

The implementing regulations increase the need for training further. Qualification rules, the treatment of work experience, joint venture structures and bid evaluation procedures differ between works, services, goods and consultancy services. The Public Procurement Authority (Kamu İhale Kurumu) publishes the laws, regulations, communiqués, standard specifications and standard forms together on its legislation page; the training programme should be prepared with the same completeness.

The move to electronic tendering has changed the nature of the work. The Implementing Regulation on Conducting Public Procurement Electronically entered into force on 1 August 2025. Taking into account the Authority's announcements on the use of documents uploaded to EKAP in electronic tenders, training should teach not only "knowing the document" but also "linking the document to the right field in EKAP". A firm may hold the document and still be excluded because of an error in the electronic declaration or link.

2. The four goals of training

Tender unit training should not aim to make staff memorise articles of law. It should enable them to read the tender documents, recognise risks, check documents, obtain the right information from the technical and finance teams and keep track of deadlines. This aim can be divided into four goals:

• Knowledge of the legislation: the basic logic of Laws No. 4734 and No. 4735, tender procedures, qualification rules, the available remedies and their time limits, and the contract process.
• Practical skills: carrying out transactions in EKAP, completing the Certificate of Participation in the Tender correctly and managing the electronic bidding process.
• Reading risks: recognising ambiguities in the documents, conditions that restrict competition, disproportionate penalty clauses, gaps in price adjustment and unrealistic delivery or construction periods.
• Institutional memory: producing checklists, report templates, deadline trackers and a decision archive after each training.

Without these four goals, the unit goes back to routine paperwork after the training. A trained unit, by contrast, works as a decision-support unit that makes technical, financial and legal risks visible before the decision to bid is taken.

3. The programme should be adapted to the firm's size and the type of tender

A firm bidding in goods tenders does not carry the same risks as a works contractor. In service contracts, services based on the employment of personnel, labour costs and price adjustment come to the fore, whereas in works contracts work experience, similar work categories, quantity take-off, cost estimates, unit price analysis, progress payments, time extensions and the General Specification for Works (Yapım İşleri Genel Şartnamesi) are decisive.

• In small firms, training should focus on the basic legislation, EKAP, qualification documents, the bid guarantee, bid submission and the time limits for applications. Since only a few people handle the procedures, practical checklists are particularly useful.
• In medium-sized firms, training should be modular. Tender tracking staff, the technical office, accounting and finance, legal, purchasing and senior management should attend different modules, because the decision to bid is not one the tender unit can take on its own.
• In large firms, the tender unit works together with bid engineering, the cost database, contract management, subcontractor and supplier management, joint ventures and finance. Training should include a sample tender file, a bidding scenario, an explanation of an abnormally low tender, a review of Public Procurement Board decisions and a simulated contract dispute.

4. Main modules of the programme

4.1. Basic public procurement legislation. The basic principles, tender procedures, the notice, tender documents, the estimated cost, bids, bidders, the most economically advantageous tender, qualification and exclusion are explained through practical examples. The programme shows concretely how the principle of competition is reflected in the technical specification, equal treatment in the evaluation of documents and transparency in the structure of the notice and documents.

4.2. Implementing regulations and type of tender. The relevant regulation is covered according to the type of tender in which the firm takes part. For works contractors, work experience certificates, similar work categories, updating the certificate amount, joint ventures, lead and specialist partners, supervision and management certificates and subcontractor experience are covered in detail.

4.3. EKAP and electronic tendering. This module is practical: user authorisation, electronic signature, the Certificate of Participation in the Tender, electronic bid submission, electronic notifications, and electronic complaint (e-şikâyet) and appeal (e-itirazen şikâyet) screens are shown using sample files. Many errors in electronic tenders arise because a document is not declared on the right line with the right information.

4.4. Reading the tender documents and identifying risks. The notice, administrative and technical specifications, draft contract, standard forms, unit price descriptions, schedules of spaces and drawings are read together. Participants are asked to find the risks in a sample set of documents: Does the technical specification point to a particular brand or model? Do the penalty clauses affect the bid price? Is the price adjustment provision suitable for the nature of the work? Is the delivery or construction period realistic?

4.5. Bid preparation, costs and abnormally low tenders. This module is attended by the tender unit and the technical office together. In works contracts, quantities, cost estimates, unit prices, lump-sum turnkey prices, the work schedule, mobilisation, site overheads, subcontractor quotes, material prices, financing costs and risk margins are assessed together. When bidding, the firm keeps in mind that an explanation may later be requested, and avoids bid components that are not supported by documents.

4.6. Law No. 4735 and contract management. Invitation to sign, the performance guarantee, signature, site handover, the work schedule, progress payments, price adjustment, time extension, increases and decreases in the scope of work, provisional and final acceptance, release of the performance guarantee, termination and debarment are covered. A contractual risk that goes unnoticed at the bidding stage may change the costs during performance; the draft contract and the general specification should be read before bidding.

4.7. Awareness of time limits and remedies. The aim of this module is for staff to recognise a possible dispute early, put time limits in the calendar and keep documents in order. A complaint to the contracting authority (şikâyet), an application to the Public Procurement Authority (itirazen şikâyet) and judicial review are all subject to time limits; staff should know that these remedies exist, how the time limits start to run and which documents need to be kept. The assessment of which remedy to use in a specific case and of the legal grounds for the application is a legal service provided by a lawyer; training does not replace it.

5. Trainers and sources

In-house experience is valuable, but it also repeats the firm's existing habits. If a flawed document-checking method has been used for years, new staff will learn the same method. It is therefore useful for the unit's staff to take lessons from trainers who work in public procurement law and practice.

Trainers should be familiar with decisions of the Public Procurement Board and the courts, EKAP practice, the contract process and problems that arise on site. For works contracts, training can be delivered together by experienced public procurement trainers, technical experts, cost and progress-payment specialists and people who have worked in contract performance.

Training should not rely on a single source:

• The legislation page of the Public Procurement Authority: the current texts of laws, regulations, communiqués, standard specifications and standard forms.
• Decisions of the Public Procurement Board and the courts: examples of resolving specific cases, calculating time limits and evaluating documents.
• ihale.tv: practical videos on EKAP, electronic bidding, the Certificate of Participation in the Tender, electronic complaints and explanations of abnormally low tenders can be used for preparation; a video does not replace practice and file work with a trainer.
• Kılıç Akademi Publications: books on work experience, abnormally low tenders and debarment can serve as written sources for the programme (in Turkish).

6. Training methods

6.1. Analysis of the firm before training. Which tenders does the firm take part in, which document errors does it make most often, has it been excluded before, has it submitted an explanation of an abnormally low tender, has it had problems with progress payments, price adjustment, time extensions or penalties during contract performance? Training given without answering these questions remains at the level of general information.

6.2. Training by role. Tender tracking staff, the technical office, accounting and finance, legal, purchasing, site management and senior management expect different results from the same training. EKAP transactions are explained in detail to tender tracking staff, while price adjustment, progress payments and time extensions are covered more thoroughly for the contract and technical teams.

6.3. Workshops on real or anonymised files. Participants are given a notice, administrative and technical specifications and a draft contract and asked to find the risks. The trainer then reviews with them which provisions are risky, on which points clarification can be requested from the contracting authority and which costs need to be reflected in the bid price.

6.4. Checklists at the end of training. A preliminary tender review list, an EKAP transaction checklist, a work experience document checklist, a bid guarantee checklist, a contract invitation checklist, a deadline tracker and a contract performance checklist are prepared. The effect of training that produces no lasting output fades quickly.

7. Sample three-day programme

Day / module	Main content	Expected output
Day 1 — Legislation and EKAP	Law No. 4734, tender procedures, EKAP, e-signature, Certificate of Participation in the Tender, electronic bidding, electronic notification	EKAP checklist and bid submission calendar
Day 2 — Bids and risk	Reading the documents, technical specification, costs, work experience, abnormally low tenders, joint ventures, document control	Preliminary tender review report and risk identification template
Day 3 — Contract performance	Law No. 4735, performance guarantee, progress payments, price adjustment, time extension, inspection and acceptance, termination, debarment, application time limits	Contract performance list and deadline tracker

The programme can be split into one-, two- or three-day blocks depending on the firm's sector, staff level and tender volume.

8. Competence map for unit staff

• Reading legislation: being able to read Laws No. 4734 and No. 4735, the implementing regulations and the Public Procurement General Communiqué.
• EKAP: carrying out electronic bidding, e-signature, the Certificate of Participation in the Tender, electronic notification and electronic complaint procedures.
• Document analysis: assessing the notice, administrative and technical specifications and the draft contract together.
• Document management: keeping track of work experience, balance sheets, turnover, guarantees, signing authority, shareholder information and quality certificates.
• Identifying risks: recognising conditions that restrict competition, unrealistic periods, disproportionate penalties and gaps in price adjustment.
• Coordination: sharing information in good time with the technical office, finance, accounting, legal, purchasing, the site and senior management.
• Awareness of disputes: spotting early the possibility of exclusion, cancellation, an abnormally low tender issue, loss of a guarantee, termination or debarment, and passing the file to the relevant unit in good time.

9. Institutional memory after training

If what is learned stays only with individual employees, it is lost when they leave. For every tender, the firm should prepare a preliminary review report and record the reasons for bidding or not bidding, the risks identified, cost assumptions, subcontractor quotes received and warnings relating to contract performance. If the tender is won, the bid file should be handed over to the project team in an orderly way.

When the contract is completed, the actual costs, progress payments, price adjustments, delays, penalties, time extensions, correspondence with the contracting authority and dispute data should flow back to the tender unit. In this way the firm prepares later bids using its own past data, not only market estimates.

10. The limits of training

A trained tender unit does not mean that the firm can resolve every dispute internally. Training provides general knowledge and awareness. In a specific case, however, choosing the remedy, calculating the time limit and setting out the legal grounds of an application require a separate legal assessment based on the documents in the file; that assessment is a legal service provided by a lawyer. The contribution of trained staff at this point is to collect the documents in an orderly way, put the time limits in the calendar and pass the file to the relevant unit in good time.

Conclusion

For firms that regularly take part in public tenders, a tender unit is an important organisational need, but its existence alone is not enough. Its staff should be trained through a modular programme designed around the firm's field of activity and division of roles, covering Laws No. 4734 and No. 4735, the implementing regulations, the Public Procurement General Communiqué, EKAP, the Certificate of Participation in the Tender, work experience, abnormally low tenders, non-price criteria and contract performance. Videos, books, articles and case reviews support such a programme; when combined with practical work and checklists, training turns individual knowledge into an institutional routine.

Sources

• Public Procurement Authority, Public procurement legislation (in Turkish)
• Public Procurement Authority, announcement on the entry into force of the Implementing Regulation on Conducting Public Procurement Electronically on 1 August 2025 (in Turkish)
• Public Procurement Authority, guides to the legislative changes in force from 1 August 2025 (in Turkish)
• Public Procurement Authority, announcement on the use of documents uploaded to EKAP in electronic tenders (in Turkish)
• ihale.tv: completing the qualification information form in EKAP, bidding and bid evaluation in electronic tenders, electronic complaints to the contracting authority and the Public Procurement Authority, explaining an abnormally low tender in EKAP (in Turkish)
• Kılıç Akademi Publications: Documents Showing Work Experience in Public Tenders, Identifying, Querying and Explaining Abnormally Low Tenders in Public Procurement, Debarment Procedures in the Public Procurement Process (in Turkish)

The first version of this article was published on kilichukuk.org on 22 June 2026; on 14 October 2026 it was moved to Kılıç Kurumsal and revised with a practical focus.

Related service: Tender and Contract Training