Politicos demand full list of Fujitsu's public sector contract wins in wake of Post Office scandal
- Reference: 1705929311
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/22/uk_lawmakers_ask_treasury_for/
- Source link:
The Treasury Committee has asked for details of contracts at 21 departments and organizations within the Treasury's sphere of influence, including His Majesty's Revenue & Customs.
On the list of queries, the MPs ask whether contracts have been awarded in open competition or directly awarded. "If a contract was directly awarded, please provide the rationale," [1]the open letter states .
[2]
The Register has previously detailed a number of Fujitsu contracts across central and regional government which were renewed without competition, the latest being a [3]£2 million ($2.54 million) contract extension to its existing £4.6 million ($5.85 million) deal to run the UK's flood warning system. The extension was granted after apparent delays to finding a replacement supplier.
[4]
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Fujitsu is currently embroiled in the Post Office Horizon scandal, in which 736 local branch managers were wrongfully convicted of fraud when errors in the system were to blame.
The public inquiry into the scandal centers on the deployment of Fujitsu's bug-ridden Horizon accounting system, which made errors in calculating the finances of local Post Office branches run by postmasters and postmistresses. This destroyed the lives of many involved, leaving some bankrupt and others feeling suicidal, with several succeeding in ending their life. Sixty people died before just seeing any sort of justice served.
[6]
Although the issue has been going on for years, and the inquiry is now its in third year, focus on the scandal ramped up after the broadcast of an ITV dramatization documenting the saga was released on January 1 this year.
Fujitsu has already [7]written to the UK government to confirm it will [8]no longer tender for business in the public sector amid the ongoing inquiry into the Post Office scandal. The prime minister has also promised to [9]bring forward acquittals and compensation .
However, the media and politicians are now looking over its existing contracts with government. The Treasury Committee's letter requests details of all of Fujitsu's contracts, including their value and length.
[10]
It asks whether considerations of supplier risk, including "whether the impact of reported issues with the Horizon system were taken into account in any contracts awarded or not awarded to Fujitsu."
It asks whether the department took or considered taking steps to bar Fujitsu from bidding for any contracts, what processes the department has in place to measure the performance of any contracts, and sets 1 February 2024 as a deadline for submissions.
[11]The Post Office systems scandal demands a critical response
[12]Post Office threatened to sue Fujitsu over missing audit data
[13]Fujitsu gets $1B market cap haircut after TV disaster drama airs
[14]UK public sector could save £20B by swerving mega-projects and more, claims chief auditor
UK tax collector HRMC could well be a particular focus for MPs. In October 2022, [15]it awarded Fujitsu a £52 million ($60 million) deal, without competition, "to replace the Additional Services (the 'Fujitsu Services') and for associated IT project services (the 'Fujitsu Project Services') in circumstances where such services cannot be provided by another supplier."
In October 2020, [16]HMRC also awarded Fujitsu a £168.8 million ($215 million) deal without competition to ensure critical applications running customs checks were still in place while the much-delayed replacement was finished.
It later said the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight system would end its life in September 2022. It is now expected to retire in March 2024. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/42960/documents/213683/default/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Za6fPkHegN1th4caYXYS8QAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/04/fujitsu_flood_contract_extension/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Za6fPkHegN1th4caYXYS8QAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Za6fPkHegN1th4caYXYS8QAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Za6fPkHegN1th4caYXYS8QAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/fujitsu_pauses_uk_public_sector_contracts/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/fujitsu_pauses_uk_public_sector_contracts/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/08/sunak_promises_faster_justice_for/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Za6fPkHegN1th4caYXYS8QAAAVU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/22/opinion_column/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/post_office_threated_lawsuit_inquiry/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/18/fujitsu_gets_1_billion_market/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/dolphins_not_whales_will_help/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/28/the_uk_government_has_awarded/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/13/fujitsu_hmrc_contract/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
" If a contract was directly awarded, please provide the rationale, "
Two obvious reasons here for the contracts being directly awarded.
1) " No one has been fired for hiring Fujitsu, see the Horizon project "
or
2) " The size of the brown envelope was seriously impressive. "
Bullet dodged
Imagine the sense of relief / scuttling around burning evidence [delete as appropriate] going on at Capita/CapGemini/Atos etc. while Fujitsu are quite rightly in the firing line.
Good luck
The Treasury is out of control and desperately needs a deep audit and reform.
I don't think they are going to bow to some peasant MP demands. In my opinion, they think they are above any scrutiny.
Not just "do they have the contact and how was it awarded", but if they have the contract then a full audit of the code, who has access, and traceability regarding any changes made.
"what processes the department has in place to measure the performance of any contracts"
When has the performance of any contract been measured by the Government? How many red-listed contracts have had significant changes, unless the Government wanted to do an about face? The NAO basically ends up urinating into a westerly ...
Has any contract that ends up 2, 3 or even 4 times over budget ever impacted on future contracts awarded to that company which then turn out to be 2, 3 or 4 times over budget or fail?
Having said that, in this case I think Fujitsu is being made a scapegoat for the fundamental mismanagement by the Post Office. MPs are just trying to deflect blame away from the PO management and its Government overseers. It is the *Post Office*, who bought a faulty system from ICL, *they* should have been auditing and checking *their own figures* and identifying faults in that new system to report to Fujitsu for full rectification (sorry, just had a flash of Electroboom ...)
Rule one of bespoke software purchase is never assume it's bug free or even correct out of the door ...
Re: "what processes the department has in place to measure the performance of any contracts"
I have been wondering who signed off the releases. Every time I sent something off to production I knew that I was on the hook if it turned to crap.
Past performance
Isn't past performance explicitly excluded from the criteria for choosing a vendor? "Level playing field" and such.
Re: Past performance
Include, it then consider everyone to be equally as shit as the last vendor.
don't care about the contracts, not really
Information on the pay packets and pension entitlements of Fujitsu managers/executives as well as their counterparts in the various police agencies, HMIC (or whatever they're called now) and Royal Mails are the relevant data here.
I think El Reg should launch the Fujitsu Contract Tracker (FuCT).
A Google sheet should do it - listing the contracts, along with value, duration and competition status as the info becomes available.
Maybe crowdsource the info from readers.