As stipulated under the Project Agreement and for disputes relating to "fact[s], matter[s] or thing[s]" in connection with the project, facility or the Agreement (Clayton Utz 2007b: p.271), and where the value of a determination is less than $15 million, an independent expert will be appointed to resolve the dispute. Under these circumstances, there will be no option for the issue to be referred to arbitration as the outcome reached by the independent expert will be final and binding (in accordance with Clauses 55 to 57) of the Project Agreement (Clayton Utz 2007b: p.274; Clayton Utz 2007b: p.271).
The types of issues that give rise to the use of an independent expert are many but can include project delays, budget overruns (Leung et al 2004), conflicting project priorities, human resourcing (Thamhain and Wilemon 1975), interpretation of contractual provisions (Cambridge Economic Policy Associates 2005: p.34-35), etc. The determination of an independent expert is typically beneficial as the appointment of this person will be mutually agreed between the public and private partners, due to the speed of resolution (disputes can be resolved within days or weeks as opposed to months or even years - compared with some other forms of dispute resolution) and cost (depending on the nature of the dispute, litigious claims can escalate with settlements reaching tens of millions of dollars or more, thus detracting from the achievement of VfM outcomes).