Public procurement in Lithuania is carried out in accordance with the rules set out in the Law on public procurement. The Law establishes the procedure, rights, obligations, and responsibility of entities which engage in procurement, in addition to the procedure for exercising control of public procurement, and settling disputes.

The Law set into force 13 August 1996, and was subsequently amended in order to meet the requirements of the EU the European Parliament and Council Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/ EC from March 31, 2004 regarding public procurement and its procedures. 

According to the Law of Public procurement, contracting authority is:

1. any state or local authority;
2. any association of state or local authorities and/or of public or private legal persons referred meeting the conditions specified below;
3. any legal persons engaged in water, energy, transport or telecommunication activity referred to in sub-paragraphs 2-4 of paragraph 1 of Article 70 of the Law on public procurement.

Any other public or private legal person is considered contracting authority and therefore must follow the provisions set forth in the Law, if all or part of its activities is intended to meet the needs of general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character, and the company itself meets at least one of the following conditions:

1. its activities are financed, by more than 50%, with state or municipal budget resources, or with resources of other state or municipal funds, or with the resources of other public or private legal persons which are considered contracting authority;
2. it is subject to control (management) by the state or local authorities, or other public or private legal persons which are considered contracting authority; 
3. it has an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the state or local authorities or by other public or private legal persons which are considered contracting authority.

Contracting authorities can select among five available types of procedure:

1. open procedure - a procedure whereby any interested supplier may submit a tender;
2. restricted procedure - a procurement procedure in which any supplier may request to participate and where only those suppliers invited by the contracting authority may submit a tender;
3. competitive dialogue - a procurement procedure in which any supplier may request to participate and where the contracting authority conducts a dialogue with the selected candidates with the view to developing one or more suitable alternatives meeting its requirements, on the basis of which the selected candidates are invited to submit tenders;
4. negotiated procedure (with or without publication of a contract notice) - a procurement procedure where the contracting authority consults the suppliers of its choice and negotiates the terms of contract with one or more of these.
5. design contest - a procurement procedure which enables the contracting authority to acquire, mainly in the fields of territorial planning, architecture and engineering or data processing, a plan or design submitted for the contest and selected by the jury. The tenderers may be awarded prizes or payments.

In Lithuania, the national threshold for public works is EUR 145,000, and for supplies and services it is EUR 58,000. Small value public procurement (i.e. one that is less than the established threshold) is subject to simplified procurement procedure, which is relatively simple and informal.

Public procurement is supervised by the Public Procurement Office, a body operating under the Ministry of Economy. Public Procurement Office drafts and adopts legal acts regulating procurement, carries out prevention of violations, controls compliance of contracting authorities with the requirements of legal acts and ensures appropriate planning of procurement and performance of public contracts. It also examines administrative cases within the limits of its competence, provides methodological assistance on implementation of the Law on Public Procurement and organizes the training in public procurement.  

Notices on public procurement (prior information notices, contract notices, contract award notices, and notices of the results of a design contest) are published in the Official Journal of the European Union and announced in the Central Portal of Public Procurement.