Article 22 of Law 8,666/93 provides for three main public procurement procedures that can be followed: public tender, price survey, and invitation to participate in a tender (Law 13,303 does not provide for the invitation to participate in a tender).

The public tender is open to whoever wants to participate, provided it can present all qualifying documents required in the bid call document before the bidding procedure is begun. In the price survey, the bidding proceedings occur with competitors previously registered, which exempts the qualifying stage prior to the biddings since it already occurred at the time of the register. Finally, the invitation to tender is the procedure where the public administration invites companies to participate in the competition.

Law 10,520/02 provides for a different procedure that is usually used for acquiring common goods and services, where performance and quality may be objectively defined in the request for proposal according to market standards.

Law 10,520/02, sets forth the Reverse Auction ("Pregão") in its electronic modality. Its main characteristic is an inversion of the bidding procedure stages: the biddings occur prior to the analysis of the qualification documents, which will be analyzed only for the company that submitted the best bid.

Law 13,303/16, applicable to state controlled companies, determine that the Reverse Auction must be conducted in the electronic modality.

Generally public tenders and contract notices are published in the Official Gazette of the Union or States or it can also be published in the public bodies websites. The rules are:

1. Publication in the Official Gazette of the Federal Government, when it is a tender made by an entity of the Federal Public Administration, and also, in case of works partially or totally financed with federal resources or guaranteed by federal institutions;
2. Publish in the Official Gazette of the State, or of the Federal District, when the tender is conducted by an entity of the State, Federal District or Municipal Public Administration;
3. Publish in a daily newspaper of great circulation in the State and also, if there is one, in a newspaper of circulation in the Municipality or in the region where the work will be carried out or the goods provided to; According to the size of the tender, other means can be used to disseminate the information in order to broaden the area of competition.

Prospective bidders can be excluded if they do not present the documentation required by the request for proposal or do not follow its rules. High regard is given to the mandatory nature of the requirements in the bid call document. Therefore, most non-compliances, even if small or of no practical consequence, can be a reason for disqualifying the subject company.

Another possibility for exclusion of prospective bidders falls under the penalty of prohibition to contract with the public administration (debarment). Such sanction is applied in cases of corruption or illegal acts committed against the public administration and can reach a maximum duration of o 10 years in certain cases.