NEC ECC: Can you have a time-bar on a time-bar?

I have notified a compensation event well within the eight week timebar. One week later the Project Manager responds that they do not agree it is a compensation event. Nine weeks later the Contractor comes up with extra evidence from the Works Information that “proves” it is a compensation event.

Does the Contractor re-issue a new CE or reissue the original one, and at this stage is the time-bar now irrelevant as this is not a new CE but clarification as to why a previously rejected CE is in fact a CE?

If a compensation event has been notified and the Project Manager’s response is that the matter is not one of the compensation events stated under the contract then that effectively ends the procedure at that point.

Further evidence to demonstrate that the matter is actually a CE would likely mean that the PM changes a decision previously communicated which is a further compensation event at 60.1 (8).

As the Contractor originally notified within 8 weeks of becoming aware of the event, then the matter cannot be ‘time barred’, irrespective of the PM’s initial response, because the further CE relates to the same event.