NEC ECC- CE assessment without an accepted Programme

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts Compensation Events
1

NEC 3 Option B - Our first programme has not been accepted by the PM this has been going back and forth for months. Works are well under way on the project without an agreed programme. Not Ideal!!

The Contractor has multiple CE’s submitted and accepted by the PM in relation to costs. The Contractor has stipulated in their CE quotations that a… “time related impact cannot be provide as the programme has not yet been accepted, and once the programme has been accepted a time related impact will be provided”.

The PM has also not made a time related assessment to the programme in his acceptance of CE to date.

When the first programme is accepted and updated. The updated programme will indicate if the previously accepted CE have an impact on the accepted programme, if their are impacts associated to the CE previously accepted.

Does the Option B allow the Contractor to submit a CE for programme delays related to CE’s previously accepted by the PM (prior to acceptance of the first programme)?

2

If a programme was stated in Contract Data Part 2 then that is the Accepted Programme, although it may not be of much value in assessing compensation events, although at least a starting point.

If there is no Accepted Programme, then the Project Manager should make their own assessment of the CE’s, as required under clause 64, so it is in the PM’s interest to proactively manage the programme acceptance procedure so there is an Accepted Programme.

A way to overcome this situation is for the PM to state an assumption regarding any time effects, otherwise both cost and time are required to be assessed under the same compensation event. This is not just related to main Option B and is common to all NEC contracts.