NEC3 ECS: option A tender but Contract Data contains no dates

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts Contract Data
#1

We are a small and young company and never had to use NEC3 ECS option A before.
Draft NEC3 ECS option A received as part of tender but Contract Data contains no dates.

We are working on our Activity Schedule and understand we have to cross reference with an outline programme so that we can be paid at regular intervals to facilitate our cash flow. Problem is, how do we put a programme together when we have no dates in the contract data ? Are we to make assumptions based on our vague knowledge of when the contract will start and if we get awarded the works the dates will be discussed then ? Does not sound right to me given that option A is basically a fixed price with us taking most of the risks.
If dates should have been incorporated isn’t this omission affecting the tender validity altogether?

#2

Not quite sure what a “draft” tender is but that is a very good question and why you need dates to be able to price. How can a Subcontractor price work not knowing when they are going to be carrying out the work? If you are doing excavation works, the duration and risk (and therefore price) will change if you are doing it in the winter or the summer. You need to communicate with the Contractor during the tender stage explaining this problem and saying you need parameters on which to base the price. If they are making this your risk as in they want a lump sum price for any starting or access date, then you would price worse case scenario. Much better they give you some assumptions or dates or at very least a window, so you can price accordingly.

Contract data expects that you will be given a starting date and an access date so you can base your risk and price upon. Nine times out of ten you would also be given the Completion Date they want you to achieve, although occasionally they want you to come up with this date as part of your competitive tender and it will be a criteria they base the award upon.

Talk to your Contractor, explain your problem and see what resolution they come back with - and either then price accordingly or refuse to submit your tender at all.

#3

Thanks for your prompt response. By Draft I mean that the contract is full of incomplete information. It is in Word so that we can complete Contract Data Part 2 and provide Direct Fee and S/C Fee information. I was merely pointing out that for the client not to complete Contract Data Part 1 with some dates (at least access date to work areas) is weird. Feels quite amateurish to me to ask a supplier to commit to an Option A lump sum and to have no dates in CD1. Not to mention that the ‘scope of work’ is full of (to be defined). Information that we would need to normally price our proposal. I am not even sure we can write a list of ‘exclusions’ given that we are supposed to be compliant with the WI nevertheless, however inaccurate or vague it can be…

#4

Agreed - so you need to tell them that during tender stage that without that information you can not really give a price, or not one without significant risk included within that price. You need that missing information to be able to price properly, or even maybe to price/programme at all. Ask them for the missing elements, and depending on what they give you will depend on your next action as to whether you are able to tender or not.

#5

Thx for your help.