How to improve an ICV score before a tender
Short answer
An ICV score is calculated from one financial year's transactions, so it moves while those transactions are still being made and stops moving once the year closes and the accounts are audited. The decisions that shift it are ordinary finance and procurement decisions: where third-party spend goes and whether those suppliers hold certificates, who is employed and at what cost, what assets sit in the UAE, and whether the company has taken up the schemes that carry stated bonuses. Each one acts on a specific component of the MoIAT formula, and each one has to be evidenced before a certifying body will accept it.
Why timing decides what is possible
The ICV score of a legal entity is produced from that entity's audited financial statements for a given financial year. Every input — third-party spend, payroll, fixed assets, supplier certificates — is a record of something that already happened during that year.
That produces the timing problem at the centre of ICV: certification happens after the year it describes. By the time a score is confirmed, every decision that produced it has been taken. Improving a score is therefore work done during the year being measured, not after it. A tender in the second half of a financial year is being bid with a score that is already largely fixed.
It is also why “how many points can I gain before this tender” usually has a smaller answer than people expect, and why the useful version of the question is which decisions are still open this year.
What actually moves the score
MoIAT publishes the formula and its component weightings. Reading actions against it, rather than against a list of general advice, is what makes it possible to say why one decision matters more than another for a given company.
Two properties of the formula change how that list should be read. The bonuses are additive on top of the core components rather than carved out of them, so the published weightings sum above 100%. And the largest single weighting is spend — which means that for most companies the supplier base, not headcount, is where the arithmetic is most responsive.
| Decision | Component it acts on | How the formula responds | Evidence a certifying body will expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move third-party spend to suppliers with higher ICV scores | Third Party Spend / Manufacturing Cost — the largest weighting, at 50% | Each purchase is multiplied by that supplier's ICV percentage before entering the numerator. Shifting the same spend to a higher-scoring supplier raises the numerator without changing total cost. | Purchase orders and invoices, matched to a valid ICV certificate for each supplier |
| Obtain certificates from suppliers that have none | Third Party Spend / Manufacturing Cost | The multiplier is the supplier's ICV percentage, applied at a floor rather than a flat zero for a supplier with no certificate. For service providers, an uncertified UAE-based vendor still counts at a 10% floor; for goods manufacturers, a UAE-manufactured purchase counts at 100% and an uncertified UAE service-provider purchase counts at a 50% floor. A supplier outside the UAE, including a free-zone service provider, counts at 0% without a certified score. | The supplier's own valid certificate, for the relevant period |
| Hold or acquire qualifying assets in the UAE | Investments — 25%, a flat base plus a progressive element in asset-value bands | Measured on net book value of assets in the UAE against total assets, so it is a balance-sheet position at the year end rather than a flow across the year. | Fixed-asset register, purchase documentation, and the audited balance sheet |
| Employ and invest in Emirati staff | Emiratisation — 15% | Weighted progressively. Emirati cost also enters the Manufacturing Cost and Third Party Spend numerator directly, so it acts on two components at once. | Payroll records, employment contracts, and training and benefits costs |
| Take up the Industrial Technology Transformation Index | Advanced Technology and Sustainability Bonus | MoIAT states that manufacturers can raise their ICV score by up to 5% by participating in ITTI. | ITTI participation, applied for through MoIAT |
| Obtain a recognised environmental certification | Advanced Technology and Sustainability Bonus | MoIAT lists ISO 14001, ISO 14046, ISO 50001 and the Green Industries Label as carrying 1%. | The certification itself, valid for the period |
What this page will not tell you
Published guidance in this category routinely quotes how many points an action is worth, or what score a company should aim for. Those figures are not available from any primary source, and a number invented to fill the gap is worse than an acknowledged gap.
- Point movements per action
- How far a decision moves a score depends on the entity's own cost structure, because every component is a ratio against that entity's total cost or total assets. The same supplier switch is worth different amounts to two different companies. A general figure is a number nobody can have.
- A target score
- There is no published national benchmark for a good ICV score. Thresholds are set by the buyer in the tender documents, so the only meaningful target is the one in the tender being bid.
- Guaranteed outcomes
- A certifying body assesses the submission against audited financial statements. Auditro does not certify scores and does not guarantee tender outcomes.
Why evidence decides whether an improvement survives
An improvement that cannot be evidenced does not become a score. Each component traces back to specific records — purchase orders and invoices for spend, supplier certificates for the multiplier applied to that spend, payroll for employment costs, the fixed-asset register for investments — and a claim that cannot be tied to those records can be reduced or rejected during certification.
That is the practical reason improvement work and evidence work are the same work. Deciding to shift spend to a certified supplier is half of it; the certificate still has to be collected, valid for the right period, and matched to the transactions it supports, at the point the assessment happens rather than months afterwards.
Common questions
How do I improve my ICV score before a tender?
By changing decisions still open within the financial year being measured. The score is calculated from that year's transactions, so spend still to be committed, hiring still to be done, and assets still to be acquired are what remain available. Once the year closes and the accounts are audited, the inputs are fixed.
Which action raises an ICV score the most per dirham?
It depends on the company's cost structure, because every component is a ratio against that entity's own totals. As a general property of the formula, third-party spend and manufacturing cost carry the largest weighting at 50%, so for most companies the supplier base is where the arithmetic is most responsive. A supplier switch worth a great deal to one company can be worth very little to another.
What ICV score applies to a supplier who cannot produce a certificate?
The formula multiplies each purchase by the supplier's ICV percentage, applied at a floor rather than a flat zero. For service providers, an uncertified UAE-based vendor still counts at a 10% floor; for goods manufacturers, a UAE-manufactured purchase counts at 100% and an uncertified UAE service-provider purchase counts at a 50% floor. A supplier outside the UAE, including a free-zone service provider, counts at 0% without a certified score.
Does buying equipment in the UAE before year end raise the score?
It acts on the Investments component, which is measured on net book value of assets in the UAE against total assets. Because that is a balance-sheet position at the year end rather than a flow across the year, timing relative to the year end matters. Whether it is worthwhile is a cash decision as much as a score one.
Can I model an ICV score before the audit, or do I have to wait for the certificate?
The score can be estimated from current records at any point in the year, which is what a shadow score is. It is a forecast rather than a certificate, and only a certifying body can produce the certified figure — but a forecast during the year is what makes it possible to act while the decisions are still open.
What is a good ICV score?
There is no published national benchmark. The score that matters is the threshold set by the buyer in the tender being bid, and that varies by buyer and by tender. In Abu Dhabi government and semi-government procurement the Industrial Development Bureau puts the ICV factor at 40% of the financial evaluation, which indicates how much weight the score carries without setting a target.
Sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to one of these. Where a question is not settled by a primary source, this page says so rather than picking an answer.
Auditro provides ICV decision support and evidence workflows. It is not a certifying body and not an Accredited Service Provider, it does not certify scores, and it does not guarantee tender outcomes.