Transparency in public procurement means that information on the public procurement process is available to everyone: contractors, suppliers, service providers, and the public at large unless there are valid and legal reasons to keep certain information confidential. Examples of confidential information are: proprietary information of companies or individuals participating in the solicitation process and certain military/defense procurements.

When a public procurement requirement is published or made available to the market by any means (electronically, press, internet portal, etc.), the announcement contains sufficient details for interested contractors, suppliers, and service providers to understand it in order to determine if they are qualified to compete; most especially, the solicitation document is made widely available preferably free of charge.

 After reading the solicitation document, interested contractors, suppliers, and service providers are also able to determine: the nature of the requirement and its scope; closing date for submission of bids, proposals, or information; evaluation and selection criteria; details on how and where bids/proposals are to be submitted; the number of copies, point of contact for additional information and response to queries (clarifications); deadline for submission of queries; schedule of pre-bid/proposal meeting and site visits, and any other pertinent details. Additionally, if there is a change to the solicitation document, all stakeholders are notified through the same media that was used for the initial notification, so that they can take the necessary action to comply with the change.