How to Write a Technical Proposal for Government and Major Project Tenders

Most contractors write a technical proposal the way they write a company profile: who we are, what we have done, why we are the best choice. The evaluation committee does not read it that way. It reads with a score sheet in hand, criterion by criterion, and the sheet was fixed in the tender documents before your file arrived. Every page that does not answer a criterion earns nothing, and every criterion the committee cannot find an answer to scores low or fails.

This guide shows how to build the technical envelope backwards from that score sheet. It is written for contracting, MEP, operations and maintenance and engineering firms bidding for Saudi government and major project tenders, with notes on the new procurement law and on Egypt. It covers the document. Registration on portals is a separate task, done in the bidding company’s name; RX has handled supplier and tender registration for clients on Saudi platforms such as Etimad, and our guide to the vendor registration document pack covers that step.

How a Saudi tender is actually evaluated

Under Saudi Arabia’s current Government Tenders and Procurement Law, proposals submitted through the government portal (Etimad) are encrypted (Article 37). Where the tender requires technical and financial proposals separately, only the technical proposals are opened first (Article 44), and the committee then examines the financial proposals that belong to the accepted technical proposals (Article 46). The tender documents must set out the criteria for assessing, comparing and accepting proposals (Article 24). The law also requires an initial guarantee of 1% to 2% of the proposal value (Article 41). Check the current text of the law and the tender itself, because a new law replaces this one (see below).

On the portal itself, a bidding guide published by Setup in Saudi, a private consultancy, describes separate upload areas for technical documents, financial documents and attachments, with prices entered in an online bill of quantities. Treat that as a general description rather than an official rule: follow each tender’s instructions, because the required files and upload structure can differ between tenders.

How the two halves are combined is set out in the controls for preparing bid evaluation criteria (Arabic, version 1.0, March 2021), issued by the Expenditure Efficiency and Government Projects Authority (EXPRO) under the executive regulations and published on the Ministry of Finance site. Three rules in it shape how you should write:

• Some criteria are pass/fail. Examples in the guide include meeting the key technical specifications, committing to the required delivery or service schedule, providing a time-bound work plan and, where required, a certified local content baseline and target. A bid that fails one can be excluded, however good the rest of it is.
• There is a minimum technical score. The entity sets the minimum mark a technical offer must reach before its financial offer is evaluated, and it may set minimums for individual criteria. The guide’s worked example uses a 70% pass mark as an illustration, not a fixed rule; the actual figure is whatever the tender states.
• Weights are set in advance. The criteria and their weights are set out in the tender documents, so read them before you plan the proposal.

What the weights mean for your effort

The same guide sets ranges for the technical and financial weights by contract type. Selected ranges from the 2021 version (check the version current when you bid, and the weights stated in your tender):

A low technical weight in construction tempts many firms to treat the technical envelope as paperwork. That is a mistake for two reasons. First, the pass mark still applies, so a careless technical offer can remove you before price is considered. Second, the scoring is relative. In the guide, a bidder’s technical score is its average points divided by the highest average among the offers, and its financial score is the lowest price divided by its own price.

Hypothetical example (illustrative figures, not a real tender or client). Take a construction tender weighted 20% technical and 80% financial. Bidder A scores 90 technical points, the highest, and prices at SAR 10.0 million. Bidder B scores 72 points and prices at SAR 9.6 million, the lowest. Bidder A gets 20 (full technical) plus 76.8 (9.6 divided by 10.0, times 80), a total of 96.8. Bidder B gets 16 (72 divided by 90, times 20) plus 80, a total of 96.0. Bidder A wins while charging about 4% more. When offers are close, the technical envelope can decide the award.

Start with a compliance matrix, not a template

Before anyone writes a paragraph, build a compliance matrix from the tender documents. It is a table with one row for every requirement and evaluation criterion, taken word for word from the terms, the scope of work, the specifications and the evaluation section. For each row, record:

1. the clause or criterion reference and its weight or pass/fail status;
2. the exact wording of the requirement;
3. where your answer sits in the proposal (section and page);
4. the evidence attached (certificate, CV, reference letter, plan);
5. the owner inside your company and the status;
6. any deviation or clarification needed.

Hypothetical example (a sample layout, not a real tender). The first five rows of a matrix for a maintenance tender might look like this:

The matrix does three jobs. It shows gaps early, while there is still time to send questions through the clarification channel. It becomes the proposal’s structure, because each section should map to one or more rows. And a short version of it, placed at the front of the technical proposal, tells the evaluator exactly where to find each answer. Older Saudi procurement regulations did not allow bidders to amend the tender terms or add reservations to their bids. Check what the current tender documents allow, and treat any deviation as something to resolve through clarifications, not something to slip into the text.

The technical envelope, section by section

The evaluation criteria guide lists typical technical criteria with example point ranges: methodology and project management, work plan and schedule, team qualifications, relevant experience, knowledge transfer, quality management, health, safety and environment, Saudisation and local content. The table below maps each to what an evaluator needs to see.

Two rules apply across all sections. Write to the criterion, using its wording in your headings so the evaluator can match them. And keep every number consistent: the manpower in the method statement, the programme and the organisation chart must agree, because evaluators can cross-check them, and inconsistency reads as a proposal assembled by people who did not talk to each other.

Presentation: why it affects scores

Evaluators are typically engineers and procurement staff reading several long proposals against the same sheet. Presentation does not replace substance, but it decides whether substance is found and credited. In practical terms:

• Navigation. A contents page, the compliance matrix, numbered sections that follow the criteria order and clear file names on upload.
• Hierarchy. One idea per heading, short paragraphs, tables for comparisons, and a two-line summary at the start of each major section stating what you commit to.
• Visual evidence. Organisation charts, sequence diagrams, site logistics plans and annotated photos of comparable work explain faster than text.
• Consistency. One template, one terminology and one set of names across all volumes, in the language the tender requires. A coherent document signals a coherent company.
• File discipline. Respect the portal’s formats and size limits, and keep searchable text rather than scanned images where you can, so evaluators can find and copy what they need.

This is where a proper proposal template system pays back: once the structure, layouts and standard sections exist, each new tender becomes an exercise in tailoring content rather than rebuilding a document. RX Designer’s business solutions and sales enablement work includes proposals, technical and financial offers and tender and pre-qualification files, built on the client’s brand identity so every submission looks like the same established company. For Azeidk, a contracting and electromechanical company working across Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that work includes company presentation content, service summaries, offers and project document content, built on a service architecture used across the website, the company profile and every campaign. The client reviews and approves the content, and its authorised users submit on the portal. If you are still at the pre-qualification stage, see our guide to the company profile that wins pre-qualification.

Decide bid or no-bid before you write

A strong technical proposal takes senior time, and the worst use of that time is a tender you could not win. Score each opportunity before you buy the documents, or at the latest before you assign a team. A simple sheet, rated 1 to 5 per factor, is enough:

• Fit: does the scope match work you have done at a similar size, and can you show references for it?
• Pass/fail exposure: can you meet every mandatory requirement, including classification, certifications, local content and the schedule?
• Team: are the key staff the tender requires available and qualified on paper?
• Weighting: does the technical weight reward your strengths, or is this effectively a price contest?
• Commercial capacity: can you carry the initial guarantee, the final guarantee and the cash flow?
• Time: is there enough time to the deadline to produce a tailored proposal and get clarifications answered?

Set a threshold in advance and stick to it. If your record shows a run of losses, read why you keep losing tenders even when your price is lower before the next bid. Firms that bid less often but write every proposal to the criteria tend to do better than firms that submit lightly edited copies to every tender they see.

The new procurement law, and a note on Egypt

Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers approved a new Government Tenders and Procurement Law in August 2026, as announced by the Ministry of Finance. The law was issued by Royal Decree M/76, published in Umm Al-Qura on 4 September 2026; law firms report it takes effect around 2 January 2027 (Baker McKenzie). Baker McKenzie’s October 2026 note said only a draft of the new executive regulations had been released for consultation at the time. Check the official text of the law and the current status of the regulations before relying on these dates. Changes reported by Al Tamimi & Company and Clyde & Co that matter to bidders include:

• the bid opening and bid evaluation committees merge into a single committee, and the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority may take part in evaluation;
• bid validity changes from 90 calendar days to 90 working days;
• the direct purchase threshold rises from SAR 100,000 to SAR 1 million, and the final guarantee exemption threshold rises from SAR 100,000 to SAR 300,000;
• separate frameworks on localisation and knowledge transfer, and on research and innovation procurement, are to follow.

None of the commentary we reviewed details changes to how technical proposals are scored, which will sit in the executive regulations and supporting guidance. Check each tender’s documents and the Ministry of Finance’s rules and regulations page rather than assuming last year’s template still fits.

Egypt. Under Law No. 182 of 2018, bids are submitted in separate technical and financial envelopes and financial envelopes are opened only for technically accepted bids (Article 23, per an unofficial English translation by Andersen; the Arabic text governs). Our guide to technical offers for Egyptian government tenders covers the rest.