(a) An application may be filed whenever the applicant has prevailed in the proceeding or in a significant and discrete substantive portion of the proceeding, but in no case later than 30 days after the agency's final disposition of the proceeding.

(b) If review or reconsideration is sought or taken of a decision as to which an applicant believes it has prevailed, matters related to the consideration of an award of fees and expenses shall be stayed pending final disposition of the underlying controversy.

(c) For purposes of this rule final disposition means the later of:

(1) The date on which an initial decision or other recommended disposition of the merits of the proceeding by an adjudicative officer or intermediate review board becomes administratively final;

(2) Issuance of an order disposing of any petitions for reconsideration of this agency's final order in the proceeding; (3) if no petition for reconsideration is filed, the last date on which such a petition could have been filed; or

(4) Issuance of a final order or any other final resolution of a proceeding, such as a settlement or voluntary dismissal, which is not subject to a petition for reconsideration, or, in the case of an abatement, the end of the abatement period or the date on which an order is issued terminating the abatement period.