No10 won’t halt Fujitsu roles
Govt drags its heels over future deals until after inquiry is over
RISHI Sunak is refusing to bar Fujitsu from future Government deals despite the fact its IT system caused the Post Office scandal.
The firm knew about faults in its Horizon system that led to more than 900 sub-postmasters and mistresses being wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting.
Its Europe director, Paul Patterson, has told MPs it had been aware of “bugs and errors” from an “early stage” and acknowledged it had a “moral obligation” to compensate innocent Post Office workers.
Yet the Prime Minister’s spokesman said the Government will wait until the end of the Post Office Inquiry, due to conclude later this year, before deciding whether to cut ties with the scandal-hit firm.
The spokesman said yesterday the Government will delay judgment until it has “established the facts”. Justice for post staff will be further delayed as police probes of potential criminal offences will take at least until 2026. Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said there are millions of documents to investigate.
In a bid to speed up compensation, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch will hold urgent talks with Fujitsu. At the inquiry in Central London yesterday, John Simpkins, a Fujitsu software support centre team leader, said that he and his team “downed tools” when they realised the Post Office was not using all the available audit data. He said: “The SSC decided we’re not happy doing this filtration if it’s going to be used in court cases.” Fujitsu developer Gerald Barnes said sub-postmasters should have been told of errors at the time. In 2008 he said a fix was needed to correct balancing accounts.