We're no longer helping UK Post Office persecute postal workers with our shonky system, says Fujitsu
- Reference: 1593104825
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/25/post_office_horizon_fujitsu_letters_beis_ctte/
- Source link:
In a [1]letter to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee Fujitsu said: "[W]e have now stopped the provision of any new witness evidence to the Post Office," admitting further down: "There were issues with the Horizon system; the process for identification and resolution of these has varied over the 20 year period of Horizon."
It added: “Any unresolved matters relating to shortfalls in a sub-postmaster branch account would be referred to the Post Office.”
The Japanese-headquartered company supplies the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, used for managing its remote branch offices. Local managers running those offices, called sub-postmasters, were targeted by the Post Office when Horizon began reporting discrepancies with till takings. Some were jailed, and at least one is known to have committed suicide after being hit with false accusations.
Fujitsu also blamed the Post Office for its “litigation strategy” during the well-publicised High Court trial last year which [2]culminated in a £57.75m settlement before its conclusion. The company said the state-owned postal operator was the one responsible for needing an expensive court trial to establish the facts.
The company continued:
Fujitsu’s involvement consisted of providing information and evidence to the Post Office upon request, and in accordance with Fujitsu’s contractual obligations. In most cases, this involved providing raw data drawn from the audit log of the Horizon system (known as “ARQs”). In addition to the ARQs, when requested by the Post Office, Fujitsu employees provided witness statements. The Post Office determined how, if and when these statements were used as part of its own legal strategies.
In contrast, former Post Office chief exec [3]Paula Vennells said in her own letter to the BEIS committee, also published today: “The message that the Board and I were consistently given by Fujitsu, from the highest levels of the company, was that while, like any IT system, Horizon was not perfect and had a limited life-span, it was fundamentally sound.”
Praising Fujitsu as “a respected global IT company,” she said there was “nothing which undermined Fujitsu’s apparent honesty and professionalism”. Referring to the bugs in Horizon which led to the Post Office wrongly pursuing innocent people with criminal charges, Vennells said: “The problems with Horizon 1 and 2 were not apparent to the Board, which was assured by Fujitsu and trusted colleagues at Post Office that there were not - and there had not been - any systemic problems with the system.”
A government review has been set up into the Post Office’s handling of the Horizon scandal, which will doubtless subject Fujitsu to further scrutiny. The Criminal Cases Review Commission, as well as the Director of Public Prosecutions, are both considering cases arising from the Horizon scandal.
Paul Scully MP, a junior BEIS minister, said: “Government wants to be fully assured that through this Review, along with lessons being learned, that there is a public summary of the failings that occurred at Post Office Ltd.” ®
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[1] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1620/documents/15461/default/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/12/post_office_horizon_case_settled/
[3] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1621/documents/15462/default/
[4] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-8461/how-to-thrive-in-the-digital-economy?td=wptl1956
Standard practise going on here:
PO bod: "We had no reason not to trust the system, we relied on Fujitsu and they said it was all good"
Fujitsu bod: "We only supplied raw data as we were asked to do, we're not responsible for the conclusions"
Jail the lot of them.
Indeed. Both are evidently lying through their teeth. It was both of their faults, so both can be jailed for it.
And hopefully the summary
Will read as follows:
"There were systemic failing in the Horizons program regarding the amount of money put through the system compared to the amount horizons was saying had been put through
Post office managers then took the statements from horizons and wrongly inferred that theft had happened from the post office by sub-postmasters totally innocent of any such theft.
Fujitsu then supplied evidence under oath to the court that such theft had in fact happened with the result that innocent men and women were either threatened with jail, or in fact , sent to jail.
Fujitsu was aware of problems with the horizons system and had remotely corrected problems with post office accounts even though fujitsu said that remote access could not happen
Post office managers were informed that the data supplied by horizons could be and was faulty, yet decided to press on with charging innocent postmasters with theft, and forcing them to either pay back the 'missing' money of being jailed for theft.
The recommendation of this inquiry is that the managers at fujitsu and the post office be charged with contempt of court, lying under oath, and perjury"
However the chances of any report looking like that are slightly less than 1% with the report white washing the managers with the required phrases of "new procedures put in place" and "the guilty men have retired/moved on so would be unfair to charge them"
Next case
Old squaddies from northern ireland who may have committed crimes 45 yrs ago......
“The problems with Horizon 1 and 2 were not apparent to the Board, which was assured by Fujitsu and trusted colleagues at Post Office that there were not - and there had not been - any systemic problems with the system.”
Even though there is documented evidence that you knew full well that a) errors could occur and b) Fujitsu employees could modify the database remotely without the knowledge of the postmasters.
Has she told a single shred of truth over the last twenty years?