Teams that prepare a tender bid or put together an application file for government support all ask the same question: "How do we collect debt-status documents and public-authority queries quickly and without errors?" In most companies this work runs as a routine that is left to the last day, carried out by hand across several portals and dependent on one person's knowledge.
The development putting the topic on the agenda today is an announcement dated September 28, 2026 from the Insurance Premiums Directorate General of the Social Security Institution (SGK). According to the announcement, the e-Borcu Yoktur (electronic no-debt certificate) system and the EKAP (Electronic Public Procurement Platform) debt-query web service of the Public Procurement Authority (Kamu İhale Kurumu) have been updated so that they can also issue certificates for employers who regularly pay their restructured or deferred debts, and were opened for use from the close of business on September 17, 2026. This widens the group of employers who can obtain a certificate, but it also makes the timing and purpose of the query more important.
The framework: why are these documents requested?
In public tenders, debt status is an eligibility matter. Article 10 of Public Procurement Law No. 4734 (Kamu İhale Kanunu) lists tenderers that have a finalized social security premium debt or a finalized tax debt, under the legislation of Türkiye or of their own country, among those to be excluded from the tender. The same article gives the Public Procurement Authority the power to determine the scope and amount of premium debt after obtaining the favorable opinion of SGK, and the scope of tax debt after obtaining the favorable opinion of the Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı (the Turkish Revenue Administration).
The Law also allows certain documents to be submitted as an undertaking (taahhütname) at the bid stage. However, if a false undertaking is given, or if the tenderer to whom the tender is awarded fails to submit, before the contract is signed, the documents showing the status it committed to, the tenderer is excluded from the tender and its provisional bid bond is recorded as revenue (forfeited). In other words, document collection does not end on bid day; it also has to conclude at the contract stage, on time and with the correct document.
A similar logic applies on the incentive and support side. Article 22/A of Law No. 6183 on the Procedure for Collecting Public Receivables (Amme Alacaklarının Tahsil Usulü Hakkında Kanun) gives the Ministry the authority to regulate the requirement of a document stating that there is no overdue debt, in payments made to payees under public tenders and in state aid, incentive and support payments made in cash. As a result, the debt-status query may be a task that recurs not only at the application stage but also at the payment stages.
The update in detail: three points
Three elements of the SGK announcement directly affect the document collection process:
- Scope: A certificate can be issued to employers who, although they have a debt whose statutory payment period has passed, have had that debt restructured under special laws or deferred under Article 48 of Law No. 6183, and who make their payments regularly.
- Same-day condition: This facility is granted on condition that the debt query date and the query's reference date fall on the same day.
- Purpose-based limit: The debt limit check varies according to the purpose for which the document will be used. For documents underlying state aid, incentive and support payments, the benchmark is the gross minimum wage; for participation in tenders, the announcement specifies a separate and fixed amount.
In practice, this means that a one-size-fits-all approach to documents, "obtained once and put in a folder", may not be enough. The same company may be assessed against different limits for a tender file and for an incentive application, and the day on which the query is made may also affect the result.
Where do the documents come from?
Debt-status documents come largely from services offered through e-Devlet Kapısı (the Turkish e-Government Gateway). Under the Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı heading are "Borcu Yoktur Yazısı Talep Girişi" (No-Debt Letter Request Entry) and a separate tax-debt inquiry service for legal entities. Under the Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu heading, in turn, the "e-Borcu Yoktur", "e-Borcu Yoktur Aktivasyon İşlemleri" (e-Borcu Yoktur Activation Procedures) and "İşyeri Kaydı / Borcu Yoktur Belgesi Sorgulama" (Workplace Registration / No-Debt Certificate Inquiry) services are available.
Another tool that matters for the process is verification. Barcoded documents generated through e-Devlet Kapısı can be verified by entering the barcode number or by scanning the QR code in the mobile app. Running documents that come from joint venture partners or affiliates through this step before placing them in the file is a simple check that reduces the risk of errors.
The practical route: automating the document collection flow
Document collection is a good fit for robotic process automation (RPA): the rules are clear, the work is repetitive, it runs across multiple systems and errors are costly. The steps below are a general approach derived from the framework in the sources; each organization needs to adapt it to its own structure, authorization arrangements and the conditions in the tender documentation.
- Draw up a document inventory. In a single list, bring together the debt-status documents requested for each tender and support program, the legal entities for which they are requested (the company, partners, joint venture members) and the stage at which they are needed (bid, contract, payment).
- Add a purpose label. Mark every request as "tender" or "incentive/support". Because the limits in the SGK announcement vary by purpose, the purpose of the document request must be clearly stated in the record.
- Build the calendar backward. Plan query days working back from the bid, contract and payment dates. For employers covered by restructuring or deferral, make it a rule to obtain the document close to the day of use, taking the same-day condition into account.
- Automate the collection, not the authority. The bot's job should be to save query results and documents to the relevant folder under a naming convention, record their date and purpose, and report what is missing. e-Devlet access and signing authority should be determined by the organization's information-security and authorization policy; login credentials should not be embedded in a script.
- Make barcode verification a standard step. Run every barcoded document that enters the file through the verification service and store the verification result alongside the document.
- Route exceptions to a person. If the query shows a debt or the document cannot be issued, the flow should stop and a notification should go to the finance and legal leads. Judgments such as whether a debt is "finalized" are the expert's job, not the bot's.
- Do not forget the payment stage. Because Article 22/A of Law No. 6183 also covers the payment stages, add the progress-payment (hakediş) and support-payment calendar to the same watch list.
This flow can also be combined with the tracking of notifications that arrive from public authorities. The approach described in the e-Tebligat article on tracking and routing electronic notifications can be run by the same team from the same watch list.
Conclusion
The update SGK put into effect on September 17, 2026 opens up a new possibility in tender and incentive files for employers who regularly pay their restructured or deferred debts. However, the same-day condition and the limits that vary by purpose mean that document collection has to stop being a routine left to the last day and become a planned process. An automation flow built on an inventory, a purpose label, a backward calendar, verification and exception management can help the file be completed on time and in full.
Why logistics experience matters in document collection. Gathering debt-status documents for a tender or incentive file is, in operational terms, a small inbound logistics flow. A manifest lists what must arrive and for which entity, a label records the purpose, the schedule is worked backward from the delivery date, a document subject to the same-day condition is pulled just in time, every barcoded item is verified on arrival, and a named person takes over when something fails. One of Orient Global's consultants brings more than 30 years in operations, logistics and supply chain: at a technology distribution company of roughly one billion dollars in scale, he ran logistics, warehousing, technical service and administrative operations end-to-end, building and leading teams of 100+ people and delivering lasting gains in operational performance through KPI-driven programs. He has also managed nationwide warehouse and transport operations across leading retail, logistics and distribution organizations. An industrial engineer, he now brings that supply-chain discipline to SMEs through AI and automation. Meet our consultants.
This article is for general information purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice.
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