The Project Manager rejects a CE on grounds that he does not believe the CE has an impact on Cost, the Contractor disputes the rejection and raises a quotation without the PM accepting the CE, is the quote still valid?
The Contractor notified a CE, the PM rejected it as there was no impact on defined cost. The Contractor disputed the rejection and still raised the CE off their own back.
Does the rejection still stand?
There is no point in putting in a quotation if the PM does not agree it is one as they will not bother to do anything with the quote (and are not contractually obliged to). If you are using one of the cloud based communication tools such as FastDraft it will stop this from happening as the Contractor would not be able to put in a quotation if the PM has not agreed it is a CE and requested one.
The effort should be in beefing up the argument as to why the Contractor thinks it is a compensation event in the first place that will effect Defined Cost. If the PM does not agree - the contractual option is to take that matter to adjudication, or under NEC4 escalate to senior management.
I agree with Glenn’s comments about the PM’s obligations with regard to the quote and that the contractor should bolster why it is considered that there will be an effect on Defined Cost. That said, assuming that the PM doesn’t deny that the event is a CE under the contract and given the likelihood that the contractor will choose to pursue the matter, it may make sense to use the Early Warning process to proactively explore the issue