Fujitsu Knowingly Supplied Faulty Data To The British Post Office

Uploaded on 2024-01-18 in GOVERNMENT-National, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-Law, BUSINESS-Services-IT & Telecoms

Revelations about the unfolding British Post Office scandal are an example of a faulty IT system resulting in human tragedy - one that raises big questions about how governments use and understand technology.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions for theft and false accounting after discrepancies in Fujitsu's Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing. Some went to jail, many were financially ruined and the scandal has been linked to at least four suicides.

In testimony to a Parliamentary Committee the Post Office's Chief Executive admitted that the money taken from branch managers could have been part of "hefty numeration packages for executives". imdded, the Post Office scandal is a major miscarriage of justice in which over 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for theft, false accounting and fraud at their branches meant between 1999 and 2015, when these problems were in fact due to errors of the Horizon accounting software.

Fujitsu, who provided the system knew that it had IT faults back in 2008, but didn’t tell the Post Office.

The Post Office’s management should have been made aware of the computer mistakes and the effects on operations. Worse, Fujitsu is still providing data from the Horizon IT system for use in legal actions against post office operators, the Parliamentary Committee was told.

The Post Office continued to prosecuted more than 900 post office operators across the UK for alleged theft, fraud and false accounting and only stopped directly bringing cases in 2015. Any subsequent potential cases of theft or fraud identified at a branch are referred to police, and ultimately the Crown Prosecution Service if there is enough evidence.

The the subsequent inquiry by MPs into the scandal has heard that Fujitsu already knew about numerous system faults that it used to extract data on Post Office transactions, subsequently used in the prosecution of hundreds of post office operators.

Evidence presented to the inquiry suggested bosses at Fujitsu were concerned at the time that defence lawyers might question the integrity of Fujitsu’s data. Emails shown to the inquiry between Fujitsu managers and the fraud and litigation team, which investigated transactions that failed to complete on Post Office systems, revealed that Fujitsu knew about a string of ongoing problems that it did not reveal.

Fujitsu gave evidence that it was used to send innocent people to prison, and while he did not know exactly when bosses first knew of issues related to Horizon, it had bugs at a "very early stage".

Problems that Fujitsu found included as many as one-third of transactions being duplicated with some fixes involving “manual workarounds”, which the company knew if exposed could call into question the integrity of the data and therefore prosecution cases.

Appearing alongside the Post Office Chief Executive, Fujitsu Europe's boss has admitted the firm has a "moral obligation" to contribute to compensation for sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted as a result of its faulty IT software. Paul Patterson said Fujitsu gave evidence to the Post Office that was used to prosecute innocent managers. He added that the Post Office knew about "bugs and errors" in its Horizon accountancy software from an early stage.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted for theft and false accounting after money appeared to be missing from their branches, but the prosecutions were based on evidence from faulty Horizon software. Some sub-postmasters wrongfully went to prison, many were financially ruined. Some have since died.

It has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history, but to date only 93 convictions have been overturned and thousands of people are still waiting for compensation settlements more than 20 years later.

Post Office Scandal UK: @PostOffice: BBC: Guardian: Telegraph: FT: Wikipedia: Sky:

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