Should we sign the contract with the Contractor’s programme referenced from Contract Data part two?

The answer is only do this when you are happy that it is to the standard of an Accepted Programme, otherwise you lose the ability to use the incentive in clause 50.5 – withholding a quarter of the Price for Work Done to Date (PWDD) – to ‘encourage’ the Contractor to develop and submit such a programme for acceptance. Contractor’s should want to submit a good comprehensive programme to demonstrate they have understood the project, can produce a good quality programme to a good standard and also meet the contractual requirements.

However, it is arguably unfair on a contractor tendering in competition to develop a tender
programme to this level and quite hard as Subcontractors will not be under contract either.
Consequently, many Clients ask for a tender programme that is capable of being developed
into the Accepted Programme and define in the Instructions to Tenderers what they mean
by this. Having selected the Contractor, they then work with the Contractor to develop it to
a state where it can be incorporated into the contract via this entry in Contract Data part
two. Failing this, they continue working with the Contractor so that it can be accepted
before the first assessment date, thus avoiding the need to enact the quarter of the PWDD
sanction.