On July 1-2, 2025, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) held its Public Procurement Forum 2025, a major international conference to discuss cutting-edge developments in public procurement around the world.
Professor Christopher Yukins (GW Law) joined a panel (listed below) to discuss building public trust through public procurement.
In his presentation, Professor Yukins argued that the principal-agent theory, see, e.g., Michael C. Jensen & William H. Meckling, Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure (1976), broadly applied to public procurement for decades, see, e.g., Peter Trepte, Regulating Procurement (Oxford U. Press 2005); Christopher Yukins, A Versatile Prism: Assessing Procurement Law Through the Principal-Agent Model, 40 Pub. Cont. L.J. 63 (2010), offers a means of both predicting and mitigating losses of public trust in procurement.
Professor Yukins argued that the OECD can play a critical convening role, helping the key players in reinforcing public trust — vendors, enforcement officials, members of civil societies and other — address the agency and monitoring problems that can otherwise erode public trust in public procurement.
