BESTEK - The Public Procurement Podcast
Oct 6, 2026 · 21 min · 12 segments
In this solo “aperitif” episode of Bestek, Marta Andhov shares highlights from the closing panel on arbitration in public contracts at the PurpLE Conference on Public Procurement and Contracts in…
Marta AndhovHost
So as a consequence of that, we are right now really in the process of trying to get as much of this great content to you, our dear listeners who did not manage to join us for the conference.
So the final panel that was closing that conference, this two-day event, was on arbitration in public contracts.
The four panelists covered the advantages of arbitration, the legal limits on using it, the practical constraints contracting authorities actually run into in different jurisdictions.
But there was one question that kept the room particularly engaged at the beginning of the panel, and that was what I want to pull out today.
Because I think it's the one most of you are already sitting with if you're working with practice, even if you haven't put it in awards.
And that is the question, should public contracts even be allowed to go to arbitration in the first place? Not how we do it, not when we do it, but whether actually as a starting point, they should be allowed to.
if there is a breach of a contractual relationship or you think you have been wronged as a supplier or as a contracting authority, where you take that fight and who gets to decide it.
And this question or these questions change everything about how fast we are made whole again, how much it will cost us to get there and whether details of the potential mess that has been caused by one of the contracting parties is made public or whether it's kept confidential.
that's informing ultimately whether the public ever finds out exactly what happened.
And due to this public-private nature of public contract, this is one of the more consequential questions when it comes to discussion around public contracts, in my personal opinion.
So she's working in both the academic and in the practitioner's world at the same time.
Let's start with her and her case for the arbitration and public procurement in the first place.
So as a consequence of that, we are right now really in the process of trying to get as much of this great content to you, our dear listeners who did not manage to join us for the conference.
So the final panel that was closing that conference, this two-day event, was on arbitration in public contracts.
The four panelists covered the advantages of arbitration, the legal limits on using it, the practical constraints contracting authorities actually run into in different jurisdictions.
But there was one question that kept the room particularly engaged at the beginning of the panel, and that was what I want to pull out today.
Because I think it's the one most of you are already sitting with if you're working with practice, even if you haven't put it in awards.
And that is the question, should public contracts even be allowed to go to arbitration in the first place? Not how we do it, not when we do it, but whether actually as a starting point, they should be allowed to.
if there is a breach of a contractual relationship or you think you have been wronged as a supplier or as a contracting authority, where you take that fight and who gets to decide it.
And this question or these questions change everything about how fast we are made whole again, how much it will cost us to get there and whether details of the potential mess that has been caused by one of the contracting parties is made public or whether it's kept confidential.
that's informing ultimately whether the public ever finds out exactly what happened.
And due to this public-private nature of public contract, this is one of the more consequential questions when it comes to discussion around public contracts, in my personal opinion.
So she's working in both the academic and in the practitioner's world at the same time.
Let's start with her and her case for the arbitration and public procurement in the first place.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
