A tender that attracts one bid has not been won; it has been accepted. The number matters more than any other measure of a public market’s health, and across most of Europe it simply cannot be calculated, because the count of bids received is not published in any structured form. Lithuania publishes it on roughly a fifth of notices, which is thin but enough to see a trend — and the trend this summer moved the wrong way.
Set against the year, the summer months stand out — and the gap between institutions is wider than the gap between periods.
| Period | Notices with a bid count | Single-bid | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full year to date | 2,311 | 833 | 36.0% |
| June-July | 220 | 98 | 44.5% |
| Vilniaus universitetas | 114 | 71 | 62% |
| Santaros klinikos | 90 | 55 | 61% |
| Valstybinių miškų urėdija | 41 | 23 | 56% |
| Via Lietuva | 101 | 9 | 8.9% |
READING THE NUMBER
A summer rise is not automatically a deterioration — holiday months thin out bid teams everywhere, and a smaller sample moves further. What the seasonal explanation does not cover is the spread between institutions, which is stable across the whole year: a university at 62% and the national road directorate at 8.9% are not experiencing the same market. Road works are standardised, widely capable and attract a field; laboratory and specialist supply drifts toward whoever already delivers it. That difference is written into requirements rather than into economics, which is where it can be changed. The wider problem sits underneath: this is one of two European markets where the question can be asked at all, so a continent-wide picture of competition does not exist, and the countries that publish the number end up carrying the reputation for a problem everyone has.
Data: Otnox — live procurement intelligence across 56 markets. Basis: Lithuanian notices carrying a recorded bidder count, national portal, 2026-01-01..2026-07-26.
