Inquiry reveals UK government misled MPs over Post Office IT scandal
- Reference: 1722252728
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/29/post_office_horizon_inquiry/
- Source link:
Appearing at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry late last week, former minister Vince Cable said he was "very reliant… on the competence and integrity of the people that are giving advice" when replying to correspondence from MPs concerned that their constituents had been victims of the scandal before it became public knowledge.
Cable was minister for business, innovation and skills, which oversaw the Post Office, a publicly owned corporation, between 2010 and 2015. Horizon is an EPOS and backend finance system for thousands of Post Office branches around the UK, first implemented by ICL, a UK technology company later bought by Fujitsu. From 1999 until 2015, 736 local branch managers were wrongfully convicted of fraud when errors in the system were to blame.
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A [2]statutory inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice launched in 2021 is ongoing.
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This week, Jason Beer, counsel for the inquiry, drew Cable's attention to a reply to a letter sent to him in January 2011 from Norman Lamb MP, who later became minister for postal affairs.
The reply, on behalf of Ed Davey, the Post Office minister at the time, denied the failing IT system had been part of a recent court case. Lamb was appealing on behalf of a constituent, Allison Henderson, who had pleaded guilty to false accounting.
[5]Former Fujitsu engineer apologizes for role in Post Office IT scandal
[6]UK education department awards contract uplift to Horizon scandal-plagued Fujitsu
[7]Bill advances to exonerate hundreds in Post Office Horizon scandal
[8]Fancy building a replacement for Post Office's disastrous Horizon system?
Davey's letter makes clear that ministers or departments cannot intervene in court cases or Post Office operational matters. But it went on to say that "at no time during the case were any problems with the… Horizon IT system raised by Mrs Henderson, or separately identified."
"We know [this] to be false," Beer said. "She had raised in the course of proceedings on two occasions including informal documents her suggestion that the losses were caused by the IT system."
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Cable responded that there should have been an interrogation of the claim by the Post Office. "But having been satisfied, as apparently the civil servants were, it was perfectly reasonable to incorporate that kind of comment in an outgoing letter," he said.
The letter was one of several about the Horizon fallout from MPs addressed to Cable's department, which he would not have seen personally, he said. MPs campaigning for subpostmasters did not raise the issue with him personally in Parliament, he said.
In his witness statement, Cable said he recognized the description of Post Office's middle management as "thugs in suits," a description previously offered by Sir Alan Bates, who led the campaign to expose and rectify the miscarriage of justice.
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Davey had [11]previously said he was misled by the Post Office and has apologized for failing to "see through the Post Office's lies" when offered "categorical assurances" about the Horizon system. ®
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[1] 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=2Zqe8pTYv5GyiTrJm84KeMQAAAVc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/28/fujitsu_witness_post_office/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/11/uk_education_department_awards_fujitsu/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/post_office_exoneration_bill/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/11/uk_post_office_epos_procurement/
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[11] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/25/post-office-managers-were-thugs-in-suits-vince-cable-tells-inquiry
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
IMHO
Vince Cable is still a great name for a pron star.*
*And in the US I'd love to find Stormy Daniels managing a new actress called "Hush Monet."
But as Watson might say
"One thing still puzzles me...
Did someone (probably in Fujitsu) really steal actual money out of real accounts?
Or has this all been about botched numerics routines?
Re: But as Watson might say
Yep, this is what is puzzling me, and has since I first remember this fiasco starting to come into view; where has the money actually gone?
Accounting exercises are great ways of covering up fraud, theft, laundering and everything else we know and love.
Re: But as Watson might say
There was no money stolen as a result of the Horizon failures. The sums allegedly stolen / misplaced / defrauded were ghost amounts created by the deficiencies in the software.
Where money was paid back or otherwise recovered by the Post Office from SPMs it appears to have gone, eventually, into the PO's own accounts as an element of profit.
https://www.postofficescandal.uk/post/podcast-where-did-all-the-money-go/
Re: But as Watson might say
"There was no money stolen as a result of the Horizon failures"
Yes, there was.... stolen FROM the SPMs.
Re: But as Watson might say
As an American, I probably shouldn't be sticking my oar in here[1], but that's one thing that makes me scratch my head over this whole misbegotten imbroglio -- as I understand it, many of the accused subpostmasters where dipping into their own pockets, sometimes mortgaging their homes, to make up these putative "shortfalls."
You have to wonder how much ill-gotten money the Post Office made off this financial pillage of its own workers.
Given the bullheaded, agressive prosecution, one might even be led to believe that they were treating these non-existent "shortfalls" as a sort of minor cash cow.
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[1] We certainly have enough malfeasance in office of our own to look after (see Thomas, C, and Alito, S, just for starters).
Re: But as Watson might say
ISTR some comment about the money going to suspense accounts in the Post Office. i.e. if a branch showed it was £5k down, there would be £5k in a suspense account in the Post Office which should have balanced everything out. This got raised because it would apparently also increase the PO's profitability and consequently exec bonuses, so they were benefitting from the errors.
Of course, that raises another question about why no-one raised the point said suspense account was massively in credit alongside several branches being out of balance.
Re: But as Watson might say
It's a great question. It seems that these people were prosecuted on the basis of 'stealing money' but in no case so far revealed, has this money been identified.
Are we to believe that Post Office employees are masters at hiding ill-gotten gains? If that were the case, surely they would be better employed in a bigger financial scam.
The money they were forced to pay in fines/settlements ended up as profits and bonuses for the top brass. The bosses had an incentive to perpetuate fraudulent prosecutions.
at what point does....
"misleading information" become "intentional lies"?
Re: at what point does....
At the same point as being economical with the truth.
Ve ver just obaying orders ;)
The department overseeing the Post Office engaged in the dissemination of carefully curated information to Members of Parliament regarding the judicial proceedings associated with the Horizon IT system. Vince Cable expressed his profound reliance on the perceived efficiency and ideological purity of those providing counsel when responding to MPs' inquiries.
Re: Ve ver just obaying orders ;)
The department overseeing the Post Office didn't think it was allowed to. Kelly Tolhurst (Post Office minister 2018-20) was in charge when the PO lost the Bates case. They then appealed on the basis that they felt the judge was biased. Tolhurst had been briefed that she didn't have the power to stop it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0xje1jqq71o
They would say that, wouldn't they
It seems that almost every person involved in running, managing, supervising, overseeing, governing, advising (lawyers) is using the defence: "Well I was much too busy to look at the detail for myself. It was underlings/servants/others who told me lies and wrote letters on my behalf." Mandy Rice Davis applies.
They were so ineffective at running the business they should do the honourable thing and pay all the lawyers fees that have been taken from the innocent SPMs. Plus interest.
Re: They would say that, wouldn't they
And charge them with manslaughter.
"UK government misled MPs"
I'm shocked.
Shocked, I say.