Similar Projects Experience in a Proposal: How to Prove It

In a Saudi government proposal, experience is judged on what you can prove. List the projects that match what the entity asks for, show each one's client, value, dates and scope, and attach the document behind every entry. The entity sets its requirement in the tender booklet, so read the experience clause before you choose which projects to show.

What counts as a similar project?

The entity decides, within limits the law sets. Under both the current law and the new law, which takes effect in early January 2027, qualification criteria must be objective, measurable and commensurate with the nature, size and value of the work, and the current Implementing Regulations tell the entity to observe experience, the project's size, nature and estimated cost, and past assessment results when setting them. The Ministry of Finance's model booklets name previous experience as an example technical-offer document, leaving the entity to choose what it requires.

In the official qualification model, a project counts when it falls in the field of the qualification request and inside the look-back period set by the qualification level, and its value is compared with the estimated cost. Your average performance-evaluation result on government projects is scored separately. The field matters: in the official guidance's example, a bidder declared 10 projects and attached contracts, but the committee found them outside the qualification field and the bidder did not pass.

If your record is thin, start with winning government tenders without past projects. This guide covers presenting the experience you have.

What should a project sheet show?

The official qualification model shows what entities ask for: at its highest level, totals first (years of experience in the field, and the number and value of projects over the last five years, or three at the lower levels), then three similar projects from the last three years, listed by contract value. Build your project sheet on the same fields:

• Client: the client's name and a contact person. The model asks for the employer's name, phone and email; brief that contact first.
• Contract: its name and value, exactly as written, because the committee checks your entries against your attachments.
• Dates: start and end, noting any gap between planned and actual completion.
• Scope: a short description in the wording of this tender's scope, so the match shows.
• Result: the performance-evaluation result the client issued, where there is one.
• Your role: main contractor, subcontractor or consortium member, and your share. The model omits it; we add it so you never claim another party's delivery.
• Proof: the document behind the entry, referenced by name.

Which documents prove a project, and how strong are they?

The official qualification guidance lists required certificates and copies of previous contracts among the documents bidders submit. The ranking below is our own assessment of how much a committee can verify; your booklet decides what it accepts.

Up to SAR 300,000 an entity may skip the formal contract: its correspondence with the contractor suffices under the current law, and its award decision under the new law, which takes effect in early January 2027. The current Regulations, as amended in June 2026, release the final invoice after initial handover or supply and the contractor's submission of certificates that include a completion certificate from the owning entity. Each purchase order under a framework agreement is assessed, and final results are filed in your contractor register, visible to other government entities. A private-sector project has no government assessment, so lean on the contract, a client letter and proof of delivery. Ask for each document while the project team is still in place.

How do evaluators score experience?

Experience can be tested in two places. In qualification, the entity sets limits for each measure and scores your declared data against them, and the committee verifies your entries against your attachments; our guide to post-qualification shows the mechanics.

Technical evaluation scores experience only if the booklet lists it. In the current evaluation-criteria controls (2021), published on the Ministry of Finance website, the indicative consulting weights give company experience 0 to 10 points, lower because pre-qualification has already captured it, against 30 to 60 for key staff; the construction and supply examples list no company-experience criterion. The same controls require entities to state criteria and weights in the tender documents and committees to apply them unchanged, so put your strongest evidence where the points are. For staff, see key personnel CVs.

How does a consortium show experience?

Show each partner's projects on separate sheets under its name, and state who will do which part of the work. The current Regulations require the consortium agreement, or the letter of undertaking filed with the offer, to specify each party's works. They also provide that, unless the solidarity procedures require otherwise, the tender documents set the qualification criteria for all parties, and each bidder in the consortium must meet them. Several of the Ministry's model booklets note that the solidarity clause is optional, so confirm that joint offers are accepted, and how a partner's record counts, before you rely on one. Our guide to joint ventures and consortiums covers the structure.

What changes under the new law?

The current law applies until the new law, which takes effect in early January 2027, replaces it; a tender offered before the new law takes effect stays under the current law unless the Minister of Finance decides to apply some of the new rules to it, so check that tender's booklet and announcements. The new law, published on 4 September 2026, keeps the rule that qualification criteria match the nature, size and value of the work, the duty to assess a contractor's performance after completion, and the duty to state evaluation criteria in the tender documents. It leaves qualification procedure, evaluation detail and joint offers to its new Implementing Regulations, due to take effect alongside it, so treat the windows, weights and documents above as current practice and re-check them once the new Regulations are issued.

Frequently asked questions

Our bid management team reads the tender package, prepares your past performance references in the format the booklet requires and reviews compliance before you submit. If a proposal we prepared is technically disqualified because of our work, we prepare your next one free of charge.