Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IT that led to innocent Post Office staff jailed is... renewed for £21m EXCLUSIVE
Bosses’ shock deal for hated Horizon system
THE disastrous computer system that caused dozens of postmasters to be wrongly jailed has been extended for use by the Post Office.
Japanese tech giant Fujitsu has been given a new deal worth at least £21million, and possibly twice that, for its Horizon accounting software.
The sum is nearly double what postmasters have seen of the settlement for having their lives ruined by the bug-ridden system.
It has been blamed for innocent postmasters being jailed, made bankrupt or having reputations destroyed after flawed convictions including theft, fraud and false accounting. The system created shortfalls in branch accounts. Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 of its staff. But following a historic day at the Appeal Court last month, 45 of 51 postmasters referred back to court have now had their names cleared, with dozens more set to challenge their convictions. Horizon, which the Post Office introduced in 1999 and spent 15 years insisting was incapable of errors, was found to be riven with glitches by the High Court. In a 2019 out-of-court settlement, the Post Office agreed to pay £58m to 555 claimants.
But after huge legal costs, they had to share just £12m, getting £20,000 each on average.
Earlier that year Paula Vennells stepped down as chief executive of the Post Office, a position she had held since 2012. The new deal with Fujitsu is endorsed by the Government, which owns the Post Office.
The Horizon contract was due to expire in 2023 but this has been put back to 2024, at a cost of £21m. There is an option to extend it for a further year, which would add £21m more.
Fujitsu has billions of pounds worth of contracts with the UK Government.
These include a deal with HMRC worth £168.8m, a £29m contract with the Department for Work and Pensions and it heads a consortium with a £200m contract for Brexit checks in the Irish Sea.
Two retired Fujitsu experts are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police over evidence they gave in courts. The Post Office is believed to be trying to replace Horizon with a “more userfriendly” system, but it is not ready.
A spokesman said: “We have taken steps to protect our business by extending our agreement with Fujitsu for the provision of Horizon for a further year, with an option to extend for a further, final year.
“It is not possible to replace these services by the expiry date of April 2023 without introducing significant operational risk.
“We’ve taken several important steps to modernise IT services.”
It is not possible to replace all services by expiry date
POST OFFICE ON WHY DEAL IS BEING EXTENDED