Swiss challenge (procurement)

A Swiss challenge is a form of public procurement operated in some jurisdictions, which requires a public authority (usually an agency of government) which has received an unsolicited bid for a public project (such as a port, road or railway), or for services to be provided to government, to publish the bid and invite third parties to match or better it.

Some Swiss challenges also allow the entity which submitted the unsolicited bid itself then to match or better the best bid which comes out of the Swiss challenge process. Indian journalist Vinayak Chatterjee describes it as "one of the lesser known and even lesser-used methods of public procurement for core and social infrastructure projects".