How to register on ePPS Malta and find government tenders

Before you register: what to prepare

The registration form at etenders.gov.mt asks for information about your legal entity at Step 1. Having this ready before you start avoids incomplete submissions and unnecessary delays. You will need:

• Organisation name — exactly as it appears on your company incorporation documents or Malta Business Registry certificate.
• Organisation type — the form offers: Public limited company, Private limited company, Joint Venture/Consortium, Limited partnership, Private unlimited company, Government body, Partnership, Non-profit making organisation, Sole trader/Cooperative, or Other.
• Organisation size — Micro, Small, Medium, or Large (EU standard definitions).
• At least one identifying number — the form requires at least one of: Company Registration Number, VAT number, or Business identification number. For Sole traders/Cooperatives, any information that helps identify the business (e.g. your VAT number) is sufficient. For all other organisation types, at least one of the three must be provided.
• Registered address — street address, postal code, city, and country. The country dropdown covers all countries, so non-Maltese entities can register.
• Contact email and phone number — the email address entered here will be used for your account and system notifications.
• Lead partner and partner organisations — only required if registering as a Joint Venture/Consortium. You will need the lead partner name and the list of participating organisations.

You do not upload documents during registration. Supporting documents (company registration certificate, VAT certificate, audited accounts, declarations of eligibility) are submitted as part of individual tender bids, not at the account level.

Step-by-step registration process

Step 1: Organisation Details

Navigate to etenders.gov.mt and click Register Supplier — this is visible in the top navigation bar alongside the Log in and Advanced search links. The registration page is titled Register Supplier and opens directly at Step 1: Organisation Details. There is no prior screen asking you to choose between supplier and contracting authority account types.

Complete all the fields in Step 1:

• Organisation Name — enter your full legal name. Note that the characters < > & % are not accepted anywhere in the system.
• Organisation Type — select from the dropdown. If you select Joint Venture/Consortium, two additional fields appear: Lead Partner (text) and Partners (a multi-select of registered organisations).
• Organisation Size — select Micro, Small, Medium, or Large.
• Company Registration Number / VAT number / Business identification number — complete at least one. For Sole traders/Cooperatives, entering your VAT number in the free-text identifier field is sufficient.
• Address, Postal Code, City, Country — your registered business address.
• Email — this becomes your login and notification address.
• Phone Number
• CAPTCHA — type the code shown in the image before submitting.

Click VALIDATE & CONTINUE to proceed. The system validates the organisation details before moving to the next step. If the system detects that your organisation is already registered, it will block the submission — each organisation can only have one account.

Step 2: User account credentials

After your organisation details are validated, the system proceeds to a step where you set up your personal login credentials — username, password, and any additional contact or role information required for the account. The primary user created during registration has administrative rights over the company account, including the ability to add further users later.

Step 3: Email verification

Once the registration form is submitted in full, the system sends a verification email to the address provided. You must click the confirmation link in that email to activate your account. Until the email is verified, the account is not functional. Check your spam or junk folder if the email does not arrive promptly.

After activation: completing your profile

After verification, log in to your account and review the profile information. This is also the stage at which you configure notification preferences — the CPV code alert settings that determine which tender publications trigger email notifications to your account. Setting these up immediately after first login is the most effective way to keep on top of the Malta procurement pipeline without relying on manual checks.

Adding additional users

If multiple people in your organisation will work on tenders — for example a bid manager, a technical lead, and a finance director — add them as named users under your company account. Each user gets their own login credentials but operates under the company's registered account. You can assign different permission levels to control who has submission rights versus view-only access.

Setting up CPV notification alerts

CPV codes — Common Procurement Vocabulary — are the EU's standardised classification system for goods, services, and works. Every tender published on ePPS is tagged with one or more CPV codes. Configuring email alerts based on relevant CPV codes is the most reliable way to be notified of new tenders without manually checking the portal every day.

Finding your CPV codes

The CPV system is hierarchical: broad divisions (e.g. 72000000 — IT services) break into progressively narrower subcategories (e.g. 72212000 — programming services of application software). To identify the right codes for your business:

1. Search the CPV dictionary on the European Commission's Simap portal or via the ePPS CPV code browser within the search interface.
2. Identify the most specific codes that match your core offering. Too broad a code generates noise from irrelevant tenders; too narrow may miss adjacent opportunities.
3. Add a mix of specific codes for your primary services and parent codes for broader monitoring.

Configuring alerts on ePPS

In your account settings on etenders.gov.mt, navigate to the notification preferences section. Add the CPV codes you want to monitor. You can also set alerts by contracting authority — useful if you have strong interest in specific government bodies, such as the Ministry for Health for healthcare services or Infrastructure Malta for civil works. Set the notification frequency to immediate or daily digest depending on your preference.

How the tender search works

The Advanced Search on etenders.gov.mt (accessible from the top navigation without logging in) has four tabs: CfT (Call for Tenders), Organisation, TED Notices, and Compliance Reviews. The CfT tab is the primary search tool for finding live and historical tenders.

The CfT advanced search fields are:

• Title — keyword search on the tender title.
• Description — keyword search within the tender description (up to 2,000 characters).
• CfT Resource ID — search by the system-assigned unique reference number if you already have it.
• CfT CA Unique ID — the contracting authority's own reference number for the procurement.
• Name of Contracting Authority — filter by the specific government body publishing the tender.
• Workspace Status — filter by the procurement lifecycle stage: options include Tender Submission (open for bids), Under Evaluation, Awarded, Concluded, Cancelled, Archived, and others.
• Procurement Type — Services, Works, or Supplies.
• Procedure — Open, Restricted, Simplified, Competitive dialogue, Negotiated without prior publication, Innovation partnership, and other EU procedure types.
• CPV codes — search by one or more CPV codes.
• Deadline for tender submission — From/To date range.
• Tenders Opening Date — From/To date range.
• Tender Publication/Invitation Date — From/To date range.

A CAPTCHA is required on the Advanced Search page before results are returned. For an overview of Malta procurement procedure types and how above- and below-threshold processes differ, see our Malta public procurement guide.

Understanding the CFT document structure

When you register interest in a tender and download its documents, the core document is the Call for Tenders (CFT). Understanding its structure from the outset saves significant time during bid preparation.

Malta CFTs published by the Department of Contracts follow a standard format derived from EU standard tender documents. The main sections are:

Always check whether addenda have been issued after the original document publication. Clarification questions submitted by other tenderers, and the contracting authority's responses, are published as addenda on ePPS. Addenda form part of the tender documents and may change requirements, correct errors, or extend deadlines. Missing an addendum is a common and costly mistake.

Tips for staying organised across multiple tenders

Maintain a tender pipeline tracker

If you are monitoring multiple live tenders simultaneously, keep a dedicated tracker — even a simple spreadsheet — recording each tender's reference number, title, contracting authority, submission deadline, estimated value, qualification criteria status, and your go/no-go decision. Without a tracker, it is easy to let submission deadlines slip, miss clarification question deadlines, or fail to download addenda in time.

Bastion Advisory builds structured bid trackers as part of its tender support service for clients managing multiple live bids.

Set your own internal deadlines earlier than the portal deadline

Never treat the ePPS submission deadline as your working deadline. The portal's upload function can be slow under peak load close to deadlines, and technical problems during upload are not accepted as grounds for extending the deadline. Set an internal document freeze at least 48 hours before the submission deadline, and complete the upload 24 hours before the tender closes.

Register interest in tenders early

Registering interest on ePPS unlocks the full tender documents and places you on the contracting authority's list of interested parties. This means any addenda, deadline extensions, or clarification responses are sent directly to you. Registering late — even a few days before the deadline — risks missing addenda published earlier that may have materially changed the requirements.

Use the clarification period strategically

The clarification question deadline is typically set ten to fifteen days before the submission deadline for above-threshold tenders. Use it. If the evaluation criteria are unclear, if a qualification threshold seems unusually high, or if the technical specification contains an apparent error, submit a question. The contracting authority's response is binding on both parties and becomes part of the tender documents. A well-timed clarification question can also signal to the contracting authority that you are a serious, technically capable tenderer.

Frequently asked questions