NEC ECC: Accepted Programme with un-agreed CE duration's within it

Our works Contractor has submitted their cl32 programme for approval.

Within their revised programme they have included tasks/ durations, but no indication of resources, for PMI’s issued since the last accepted programme - A cl 62.2 programme nor a quotation has been previously provided/ accepted.

The Contract data Part 1 includes an amendment to cl 32.- 4th bullet point " the effects of a CE which have been instructed by the PM to allow the PM to assess the potential effects of such CE’s on the accepted programme prior to implementation"

Should the programme be rejected until such tasks (CE’s) have been individually implemented?

If the revised programme is accepted with these stated tasks/ duration (no resources indicated):-

(1) Are the stated duration(s) then accepted?
(2) In terms of the respective CE’s, the duration(s) is then used as the basis of for the quotation ie. no. days of labour, equipements, etc to establish the costs
(3) Is the amendment to cl 32 is in effect a cl 62.2 programme?

By accepting a programme a Project Manager is not accepting anything specifically about any CE that may be shown within the programme. The quotation process is where they accept principle of a CE and the cost/time affect of it.

A programme issued with a quotation is a programme to back up/justify the quotation. This is a separate programme to a regular clause 32 programme normally issued every 4 weeks or every month. There may be three CE’s within a single period each with a separate programme showing the specific entitlement of each, and then at the end of the month (say) a revised programme issued for acceptance under clause 32 showing the cumulative effects of all three CE’s.

If a Project Manager has accepted a programme with a notified CE being a two week activity and then in assessing the quote deciding that the activity should have been only one week, they would assess the quote based on one weeks cost/entitlement. The fact they had accepted the programme would not have compromised them.

Following on from you response, am I correct then in saying that if the PM accepts a programme (cl32) with a planned completion 1 wk after the Completion date due to the notified CE (unaccepted) of a 2wks duration, the Completion Date is unchanged.

And when the PM assesses the notified CE at 1wk duration, planned Completion will be the same as the completion date thus no change to the project Completion date.

The answer to your follow up question is that it depends.

Let’s say on the last Accepted programme, planned Completion and Completion Date were the same, and now a two week CE moves planned Completion by one week. If that CE is considered it should have only been a week not two, and therefore planned Completion does not move by one week, then there is no entitlement to move Completion Date.

However, if planned Completion on the last Accepted Programme was a week before Completion Date (i.,e. one week terminal float), then even if the CE was agreed at one week rather than two, it still moves planned by one week and there is an entitlement to move Completion Date by one week. Contractor owns terminal float and it is not used to absorb compensation events.