Now Post Office boss accused of misleading MPs ‘at least twice’
POST Office boss Nick Read was yesterday accused of giving ‘misleading’ evidence to MPs as they called for the firm to be stripped of its role in delivering compensation to victims of the Horizon IT scandal.
A report by the Commons business committee suggested Mr Read, who is under internal investigation over his conduct, misled MPs on ‘at least two counts’.
These included the use of gagging orders and whether the Post Office had hired PR specialists to help deal with the crisis engulfing the firm.
The report branded the Post Office ‘not fit for purpose’ to administer payouts to postmasters.
It called on the Government to immediately step in and remove the Post Office from ‘any involvement in delivering redress’ amid reports of a ‘toxic’ culture.
It branded the beleaguered firm’s leadership as being in ‘utter disarray’ amid claim and counter- claim about alleged bullying and sexism.
The Post Office runs two compensation schemes and plays a key role in administering a third.
In one particularly damning passage, the report said: ‘The Post Office is not fit for purpose to administer any of the schemes of redress required to make amends for one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.’
Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted after they were blamed for non-existent shortfalls in their accounts produced by faulty Fujitsu software, called Horizon. But just a fifth of the budget set aside for compensation has been paid out, the report said.
It added: ‘The Government must immediately remove the Post Office from any involvement in delivering redress for sub- postmasters and the Government should set out to the Committee how it proposes to deliver swift and effective redress for sub-postmasters, and in what legally binding time frames.’ Last month, the committee was told that some postmasters were receiving ‘insultingly low’ compensation offers.
Regarding evidence given in recent months by Mr Read, it added: ‘Mr Read concurred that reform of the Post Office’s culture is still a “work in progress,” not “job done.” ‘In that context, we note that Mr Read has supplied misleading evidence on at least two counts, relating to the Post Office’s use of, first, nondisclosure agreements and, secondly, PR firms.’
Last month it emerged that the Post Office had hired PR firm TB Cardew on a £15,000 a month contract to help it deal with the fallout from the scandal.
But, in January, Mr Read denied that the Post Office had hired PR advisers in the wake of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Mr Read was also forced to clarify to the committee in a letter last month whether the Post Office used confidentiality agreements in reaching settlements with wronged postmasters. He had originally said ‘no’ when asked by MPs if it continued using confidentiality agreements.
But his letter said: ‘On occasion Post Office enters into settlement agreements with postmasters, for example, to resolve disputes that may arise between Post Office and postmasters in the ordinary course of business.
‘ Such settlement agreements include confidentiality provisions, as is the case in most organisations.’
‘Not fit for purpose’