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MPs demand Fujitsu be ‘nailed down’ on financial promise to Post Office scandal victims

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MPs demand Fujitsu be ‘nailed down’ on financial promise to Post Office scandal victims

Select committee hears that federal government is speaking to Fujitsu about its contribution towards the expenses of the Horizon scandal however it is not yet working out

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Released: 01 Mar 2024 9:29

MPs require more warranties over Fujitsu’s contribution to the expenses UK taxpayers deal with as an outcome of the fall out of the Post Office Horizon scandal

An organization and trade choose committee hearing concentrated on the monetary redress for victims of the scandal MPs looked for more details on pledges made by Fujitsu to contribute.

In January, Paul Patterson, European head at Fujitsu, which provided the software application that set off the scandal, stated Fujitsu is “ethically bound” to add to the expensesand MPs now desire more concrete assurances.

Questioning Carl Cresswell, director of service strength at the department for company and trade, Andy McDonald MP required the federal government return to Fujitsu and get some “tough edges” to the guarantee. He asked what is being done to “nail [Fujitsu] down” on its contribution.

“You will not discuss cash, however what about the concepts? We would have anticipated more advance on that concern even if it’s simply ballpark portion,” he stated.

Cresswell informed the committee: “The concern about who adds to the expenses in general, taxpayer or somebody else, is still quite an extremely live one.”

He concurred that the concept of Fujitsu adding to the general expenses, instead of falling entirely on the taxpayer “is an extremely practical one”, including: “Fujitsu appears available to that.”

He confessed that no figures have actually been gone over. “The concept is being developed. We touch with Fujitsu, however we are not presently working out to set a figure,” he informed MPs.

He stated now is not the very best time to consent to a figure as the Horizon scandal public questions is continuous and revealing details all the time. “If we were to concur an amount of cash from time to time the general public questions were to discover something product that might effect that settlement, I believe it would be incorrect people to reach a pre-emptive arrangement on behalf of taxpayers when the scenario may alter since of the query.”

McDonald informed Cresswell: “You need to get something from them that is significant, due to the fact that at the minute, an apology is great to hear however eventually without a pay to the taxpayer it is worthless, so please could you go away from this committee and get some difficult edges on that?”

The Post Office scandalsaw the Post Office blame countless subpostmasters for accounting shortages that were really brought on by the Post Office’s retail and accounting system, called Horizon, from Fujitsu.

The losses didn’t exist in the real life, simply on the computer system, however subpostmasters were required to pay cash to the Post Office to cover the phantom losses. Although the Post Office understood the system did not have stability, subpostmasters were prosecuted for criminal activities of dishonesty based on its information.

When questioned in the Horizon scandal public query Fujitsu’s Patterson stated he does not understand why proof of software application bugs were not offered to subpostmasters when they were being prosecuted based upon proof from the Horizon IT system, in spite of claims that accounting shortages were brought on by computer system mistakes.

He confessed that the IT business missed out on a chance to act and avoid subpostmasters from being incorrectly founded guilty for monetary criminal offenses after its software application revealed inexplicable shortages in branch accounts.

Patterson likewise guaranteed Fujitsu will consult with victims of the Post Office scandal and their agents to discuss what the IT giant can do for them beyond monetary redress. This, he stated, might consist of assistance for entrepreneurial or academic “endeavours”.

Computer system WeeklyExposed the scandal in 2009with the stories of 7 subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as an outcome of the Horizon system.

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