2026-05-25
Highlighting the most important events in the procurement sector and honoring its outstanding representatives, the Procurement Annual Award ceremony was held on May 20 at the Mazjumprava Manor Mill. In the category “Competition Promoter of the Year,” the winner was SIA “Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks”.
We received the “Competition Promoter of the Year” award as a public contracting authority that has deliberately improved the organization of procurement processes in order to reduce barriers to competition. For example, we have developed dialogue with market participants, which has resulted in improvements such as more favorable prices, higher-quality offers, a greater number of bidders, and more efficient procurement processes overall. Other nominees in this category included the Municipality of Jelgava State City and Paula Stradiņa Clinical University Hospital. The award was presented by the Chair of the Competition Council, Ieva Šmite.
“We are continuously looking for ways to procure the goods and services needed by our clients in the most cost-effective way possible. We divide historically large procurements into smaller lots so that more bidders can participate. We actively reach out to potential suppliers. We have been able to attract international participants to our procurements. We have also identified and reported supplier activities that later enabled the Competition Council to uncover prohibited agreements and prevent harm to buyers both in Riga and elsewhere in Latvia. It is a true pleasure that the jury, representing 10 organizations, has recognized our work. Special thanks go to Agnese Stūre and her procurement team at Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks, who continue to raise the quality standards of our procurement processes,” says Māris Ozoliņš, Chairman of the Board of Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks.
The aim of the award is to strengthen a high-quality and development-oriented procurement sector in Latvia. The laureates were congratulated by the Minister of Finance Arvils Ašeradens, the Head of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau Artis Lapiņš, the Chair of the Competition Council Ieva Šmite, as well as other representatives of sector organizations.
Procurement Annual Award winners 2026:
▪️ Public Sector Contracting Authority of the Year – VSIA “Latvijas Valsts ceļi”
▪️ Private Sector Contracting Authority of the Year – SIA “Tele2”
▪️ Supplier of the Year – SIA “Belss”
▪️ Municipality of the Year – Liepājas valstspilsētas pašvaldība
▪️ Competition Promoter of the Year – SIA “Rīgas namu pārvaldnieks”
▪️ Challenge of the Year – SIA “Rīgas Austrumu klīniskās universitātes slimnīca”
▪️ Procurement Educator of the Year – Liga Jaunozola, Procurement Monitoring Bureau Legal Acts Application Department lawyer
▪️ Procurement Specialist of the Year – Lita Kalniņa, Deputy Head of the Legal Department of Smiltenes novada pašvaldība for procurement matters
▪️ Contribution of the Year – Sanda Liepiņa, Deputy Head of the Public Procurement Regulation and Practice Improvement Working Group
▪️ Procurement Annual Award in Medicine – SIA “Bērnu klīniskā universitātes slimnīca”
According to the regulations of the Procurement Annual Award, the evaluation was carried out in three stages. First, from April 20, 2026 to May 6, 2026, potential nominees were identified through a public online survey. In the second stage, on May 8, the jury confirmed three nominees for each award category. In the third stage, the final decision was made by the jury through a secret vote for one of the three nominees.
The jury of the Procurement Annual Award includes representatives from 10 organizations: the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Health, Procurement Monitoring Bureau, Central Finance and Contracting Agency, Competition Council, Latvian Association of Local Governments, Latvian Procurement Association, the e-procurement platform “iepirkumi.lv”, and the Procurement Academy.
