Work out which rules apply to what you're buying.
The Government Procurement Rules were cut from 71 to 47 and reorganised. The new edition has been in force since 1 December 2025. This tells you which of them apply to your procurement, what you must do, and what you only need a good reason for.
How this works
- Answer five questions. Who's buying, what, how much, how, and whether you're relying on an opt-out or exemption.
- Get the rules that apply — separated into what you must do, what's easy to miss, and what else applies.
- Take it away. Copy or download a dated record with a reference code for your procurement file.
Free. No sign-up. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere — the page runs in your browser and only remembers your colour mode.
The numbers you must follow
Every one of these sits in a Primary Requirement or an Application section — none is guidance.
Both are whole-of-life and exclude GST, and the test is “meets or exceeds”. Above either line, Rule 8 also requires a minimum 10% evaluation weighting for economic benefit to New Zealand.
| You have | To do this | Counted from | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 clear business days | Let suppliers respond | Publishing the Notice of Procurement | 16 |
| 30 business days | Publish the contract award notice on GETS | All parties signing | 32 |
| 30 business days | Debrief an unsuccessful supplier who asks | Signing, or the request — whichever is earlier | 33 |
| 5 / 10 business days | Pay 95% of domestic trade invoices — 5 for eInvoices, 10 for the rest | The invoice entering your accounts payable system | 36 |
| 3 years | Keep the records, available for audit | All parties signing | 46 |
All 47 rules
Primary requirements quoted from procurement.govt.nz. Where one has been shortened the cut is marked […]. Must is compulsory — non-compliance is a breach. Expected to means good practice unless circumstances make it inappropriate, in which case you must record your reasoning. May is our shorthand for a permissive rule that carries mandatory conditions once used; the Rules themselves don't define it. Every rule below is a must unless it's marked otherwise.
Bookmark this page. The 47 rules, the key numbers and the glossary all work on their own — you don't have to answer anything to use them.
Words the Rules assume you already know
- A-GMT
- Approved Government Model Template. A standard contract template you must use. Rule 47 applies even when the rest of the Rules don't.
- AoG contract
- All-of-Government. A contract negotiated centrally that mandated agencies must use unless there's a good reason not to.
- Clear business day
- Rule 16 defines it as one full business day, 9am to 5pm. Twenty of them is the minimum response time — only whole days count, so part-days at either end don't.
- Collaborative contract
- Any centrally negotiated contract several agencies can buy from: All-of-Government, open syndicated, or common capability. Rule 6 makes you check the register for one before you go to market.
- Common capability contract
- A contract for something many agencies need, set up by a System Leader. Some are mandatory; for others you're expected to use them when they reasonably meet your needs.
- Conditional grant
- A grant with strings attached — you get something back for the money. It's an Appendix 1 opt-out, not an exclusion. An unconditional grant, where you get nothing back, is excluded outright.
- Contract award notice
- A public notice on GETS saying who won, what for, and roughly what it's worth. Publish within 30 business days of everyone signing. No dollar threshold.
- Economic benefit to New Zealand
- Benefit beyond the goods or services themselves — jobs, skills, local supply chains, regional development. Above threshold, Rule 8 makes you seek it and weight it at least 10% in evaluation.
- eInvoice
- An invoice sent directly between two finance systems in a structured format. A PDF emailed to you is not an eInvoice — and the difference decides whether Rule 36 gives you 5 business days to pay or 10.
- Exemption (Appendix 2)
- Staying inside the Rules but skipping open advertising, on one of ten listed grounds.
- FPO
- Future Procurement Opportunity. A rolling agency-level list of planned opportunities published on GETS, covering at least 12 months.
- GETS
- Government Electronic Tenders Service. The website where opportunities and award notices are published.
- Good reason not to
- The Rules don't define it. Treat it as a reason you'd be willing to put in writing and defend to an auditor — and write it down at the time, not afterwards.
- Have regard to
- Genuinely consider it, and be able to show you did. Weaker than “must”, stronger than “may ignore”. You can depart from the Rules, but record why.
- Mandated agency
- An organisation required to apply the Rules. Question 1 lists them in full.
- MBIE
- The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. It is the Procurement System Leader: it runs GETS and Procure Connect, receives agency reporting, and approves opt-outs from All-of-Government contracts.
- Notice of Procurement
- The document telling suppliers what you want and how you'll evaluate them. Sixteen things it must contain, listed in Rule 17.
- NZBN
- New Zealand Business Number. The unique identifier for a business. Rules 32 and 34 both ask for a supplier's NZBN where there is one.
- Offset
- A condition requiring local content, licensing, technology transfer or similar as a condition of winning the contract. Rule 4 bans them outright.
- Opt-out (Appendix 1)
- Stepping outside some of the Rules on one of thirteen listed grounds. Nine rules always survive, five more apply when relevant, and Rule 11 keeps the contract award notice duty alive too.
- Panel
- A group of suppliers appointed through one open process, from whom you then buy without advertising again.
- Pre-qualified suppliers list
- Not a panel. Suppliers prove up front that they meet your basic requirements — but you must still advertise each opportunity at or above threshold.
- Primary Requirement
- The binding sentence at the top of each rule — the obligation itself. The Application section under it sets out how to meet it. A few rules have no Application section, so the Primary Requirement is the whole rule.
- Procure Connect
- MBIE's online buying platform for All-of-Government panels. Rule 38.3 makes it compulsory when you're buying from an AoG panel contract available on it.
- Public value
- The best overall result for the money over the life of the contract — not the cheapest bid. Rule 29 makes it the test you award against.
- ROI, EOI, RFT, RFP
- Registration of Interest and Expression of Interest are first-stage requests that shortlist suppliers. Request for Tender and Request for Proposal are the second stage, where you actually buy. Rule 16's 20-day minimum attaches to the second stage.
- Secondary procurement
- Buying from a panel you've already established. Rule 22 sets five permitted methods, and most of Rule 22 applies at any value.
- Supplier Code of Conduct
- MBIE's published standard for how suppliers to government must behave. Rule 2 makes you include it in every contract.
- Syndicated contract
- A contract negotiated jointly by a group of agencies. An open one lets other agencies join later. A closed one is fixed to the named agencies.
- Whole of life
- Every cost over the life of the contract, including extensions, options, maintenance and disposal. Excludes GST.
The Navigator tells you what applies. Aequa keeps the record of what you did.
Aequa is the procurement and contract management system we're building for small and merging New Zealand agencies: the same Rules as a big ministry, a fraction of the people. Plans, the pipeline and the contract register sit in one place.
When you go back to market, it ranks the routes with the pros and cons of each, and your people decide. Changes to plans are recorded in an audit trail: who changed what, and when. Aequa is pre-launch; we start with a twenty-minute walkthrough on example data.
One place, from plan to contract
Every package on one dashboard, so the whole team can see what is being bought, where it's up to and what it's worth.
Renewals surface early
Contracts due to expire in the next 90 days are listed on the dashboard, in time to plan one approach to market.
Your people decide
Routes ranked against set rules, with pros and cons. Your officials choose, through your own delegations.
About this tool
A free navigation aid for the New Zealand Government Procurement Rules, 5th edition, in force 1 December 2025.
An Aequa tool, built by Kyt Services NZ Limited, Wellington.
NZBN 9429052956546.
Before you rely on this
Not legal or procurement advice. The authoritative source is the web version at procurement.govt.nz, which is kept up to date and prevails over anything here. Always read the rule itself before you rely on it, and check your own agency's procurement policy — it is usually stricter than the Rules.
Contracts entered into before 1 December 2025 remain under the 4th edition, including the supply agreements behind All-of-Government panels, syndicated contracts and common capability contracts. The published guidance covers contracts entered into before that date. It says nothing about procurements that started under the 4th edition and were awarded after it. If that's you, ask MBIE.
This tool doesn't cover multi-lot procurements, World Trade Organisation or free trade agreement carve-outs, or combinations of route and exemption. Rules quoted are Crown copyright, reproduced for reference.