The reader is likely to be familiar with the FIDIC DAB and DB (“Dispute Board”), as well as the DRB (“Dispute Review Board”) and CDB (“Combined Dispute Board”) of the International Chamber of Commerce Dispute Board Rules, published in 2004. Some readers may know the USA progenitor of them all, also called a DRB. These boards have been in use internationally for more than 20 years, especially by the multilateral development banks and in the engineering and construction industry.

What has been the fate of the Abu Dhabi Municipality form of DAB? Should it be adopted by other agencies of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi? Should it be adopted by other Emirates of the UAE? Should all of the Emirates consider using other board “flavours” of the Dispute Board “alphabet soup”? Perhaps insight can be had by considering the experience to date of the Abu Dhabi Municipality in the use of its DABs.

As a starting point, it is useful to compare the 1999 FIDIC DAB provision with the Municipality’s version, then examine some of the experiences to date in the use of the Municipality’s version.

It should be remembered that the Municipality Construction Contract, like the FIDIC document on which it is based, is intended for a project which has been designed by or for the Municipality by a designer other than the contractor. It is not a form of contract in which the contractor both designs and constructs the works.

The Dispute Board provisions appear in clause 20 of the Conditions of Contract, Claims, Disputes and Arbitration, with some aspects addressed in the form entitled “Appendix to Tender”.