The share of single-bid contracts at the highest-value end varies sharply between Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Latvia and Austria. It reaches 80% in Guatemala’s most expensive tenth, compared with 7% in Peru.
The widest gap appears in the highest-value contracts
Guatemala and Peru mark the two ends of the comparison. Single-bid contracts account for 80% of Guatemala’s most expensive tenth, while the share is 7% in Peru’s equivalent group. The Dominican Republic records 34% and Austria 32% at that end, with Latvia at 24%. These are shares of notices meeting the stated value and bid-count requirements, grouped within each market’s own value distribution. A high single-bid share can reflect the structure of a market, the type of work being bought or the conditions attached to a tender; a single bid is not evidence of impropriety, and a repeat win would not be evidence of impropriety either.
Value bands do not produce the same competition pattern
The comparison uses each market’s own value quartiles rather than treating GTQ, DOP, PEN and EUR as interchangeable. Within every market, the most expensive tenth is therefore defined locally, not by a common monetary threshold. The direction changes by country: Guatemala rises from 40% in its cheapest quarter to 77% in its top quarter and 80% in its top tenth, while the Dominican Republic falls from 82% to 31% and then 34%. Peru stays at 7% in both its middle half and top quarter, and Latvia remains between 24% and 34% across its upper bands. The notices must state both a value and a bid count, and nothing is converted between currencies.
| Market | Cheapest 25% | Middle 50% | Top 25% | Top 10% | Overall | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guatemala | 40% | 59% | 77% | 80% | 59% | 104,146 |
| the Dominican Republic | 82% | 73% | 31% | 34% | 65% | 37,073 |
| Austria | 74% | 53% | 40% | 32% | 55% | 2,648 |
| Latvia | 23% | 34% | 27% | 24% | 29% | 3,506 |
| Peru | 15% | 7% | 7% | 7% | 9% | 21,461 |
The mechanism matters for bidding decisions
For suppliers, the useful signal is not simply that a contract has a high value, but how single-bid incidence changes across the buyer’s own value bands. Guatemala’s rise towards its upper end points to a different competitive setting from Austria, where the share falls from 74% in the cheapest quarter to 40% in the top quarter and 32% in the top tenth. The Dominican Republic follows the same falling direction, while Peru’s upper bands remain at 7%. Those contrasts can guide market research: businesses can examine whether specialist requirements, capacity needs or tender design are more common in the relevant band, without treating the single bid itself as proof of wrongdoing.
At the highest-value end, single-bid shares run from 80% in Guatemala to 7% in Peru.
WHY IT MATTERS
The upper end of a buyer’s own value distribution can have a different competitive profile from cheaper contracts. Businesses assessing entry should examine the relevant value band rather than assume that conditions apply evenly across a market.
Data: Otnox — live procurement intelligence across 56 markets. Basis: 168,834 tenders across 5 markets, each stating a value and a bid count, last 180 days, 2026-03-13..2026-09-09.
