NEC PSC: CE Assessment Implementation

Working as a consultant under the PSC contract and there are a number of CE’s relating to prolongation of the works, all of which have been priced on a similar basis.

As consultant we have submitted our quotations in respect of each of these CE’s, these have subsequently been rejected by the Employer who has then made and implemented Employer’s Assessments in respect of them.

These assessments all contain numerous and significant clear and obvious errors (arithmetic, etc.), to the extent they border on professional negligence. Acting in the spirit of the contract we have highlighted this to the Employer, even though the errors are in our favour.

The Employer has subsequently reassessed the CE’s, but on a completely different assessment basis, which we are not in agreement with, this has also resulted in a significant decrease in the values.

Given that the Employer has already implemented assessments in respect of these CE’s, is there anyway that he can now change the values, without agreement from the Consultant?

Note - There are no assumptions included within the assessments that have changed.

I am assuming this is NEC3 as you reference the ‘Employer’ being the one administrating the contract.

There is no express provision allowing the Employer to change their mind under the, BUT (before/rather than going to the dispute procedures):

  • under 60.1(7), it is a compensation event if the Employer changes a decision which he has previously communicated to the Consultant. This implies that the Employer can change their mind and note that this compensation event can only put up the Prices.
  • if both agree that there is an error, you could sign a supplementary agreement.