NEC ECC: Clause 61.2 Proposed instruction

What are the exact steps for a proposed instruction to be put into effect:

The scenario is…

  1. PM issued an instruction under 61.2 for the Contractor to submit a quotation for a proposed instruction.
  2. A quotation was received from the Contractor and in the appropriate timescale the PM replied in line with 62.3 and stated they’d be making their own assessment.
  3. The PM notified the Contractor of his PM assessment in line with 64.3.
  4. According to 65.1 the CE is implemented when the PM notifies the Contractor of his own assessment.

Was a further PM instruction required (in addition to the 61.2 instruction) or is the fact that the PM assessment/CE was implemented negate this?

NEC4 now does this much better in section 65 of the contract. It is a whole new section on managing proposed quotations, including making it clear on what date the instruction will be given to proceed. It makes it clear on how this process is managed from when the PM initially requests the quotation.

However, if you are working under NEC3 then you still need to make the best of those clauses. Yes at some point along the way they should have instructed that they wished the Contractor to proceed with those works. That probably should have come at the point they stated that they were going to go ahead with their own quotation as it seemed at that point they could see that they wanted the Contractor to proceed at that point. If they have implemented the quote, it is pretty clear at that point that they wish to proceed, but they could/should have instructed that early to avoid any further programme issues.

So despite not issuing a separate instruction, the fact that the CE has now been implemented means the Contractor can be in no doubt that the proposed instruction is to be put into effect?

I guess so yes, but it is clumsy isn’t it! Why would they have implemented a CE that they do not plan to go ahead with? However - just talk to them just for the avoidance of doubt. Say that you assume you are to proceed now it has been implemented. It is why they have changed the wording in NEC4 which does require an instruction if they do not accept the quote so the Contractor knows at the earliest opportunity if they are proceeding with this event.