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Environment Agency dumps Fujitsu as Post Office scandal takes its toll

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Environment Agency dumps Fujitsu as Post Office scandal takes its toll

Photocreo Bednarek – Fotolia

Distressed provider loses flood cautions agreement with federal government department after nearly a years

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Released: 05 Apr 2024 9:00

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has actually ended Fujitsu’s function in supplying a flood caution system to the UK, 2 months after signing an extension of approximately 12 months.

The relocation features Fujitsu under high levels of analysis in the UK, due to its function in the Post Office Horizon scandal, and ends a ten-year relationship with the Environment Agency.

In December, Fujitsu was granted an extension to the ₤ 17.5 m agreement, which started in 2015, for as much as 12 months while a long-lasting provider was picked, with Fujitsu amongst the shortlisted bidders. The Environment Agency – the part of Defra accountable for flood signals – has now selected Leidos Innovations UK to run the service as part of a six-year offer worth about ₤ 24m.

Fujitsu’s loss of the agreement follows the Post Office Horizon scandal struck nationwide media headings. When the extension was signed at the end of in 2015Fujitsu’s function in the scandal was being analyzed as part of the general public query, however the television drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office had actually not been transmitted. The across the country furore that followed the series resulted in the Environment Agency dealing with concerns about its option of provider.

The Leidos offer consists of the shipment of a software application bundle and details systems, interaction software application, telephone and information transmission services, IT services and systems and technical consultancy services. The tender award notification stated the present system has actually stayed mostly the same for several years.

“This is a complicated innovation estate, and consists of telemetry systems, forecasting systems and services all feeding into messages being released from the flood caution system,” it stated.

Fujitsu revealed a time out in bidding for federal government agreements, as a concession in the middle of fury over the Post Office scandal after the Television drama, this does not consist of work with existing consumers. Fujitsu quote for the brand-new agreement in addition to Accenture and IBM, which likewise lost.

Fujitsu’s track record has actually taken a big hit considering that the broadcast of ITV’s drama about the Post Office, which informed the stories of subpostmasters who ended up being victims of the scandal, set off by Fujitsu’s error-prone Horizon software application. The Japanese provider’s UK operation is under extreme analysis and there is pressure on it to stop bidding for all federal government agreements. It has actually currently accepted pay towards the substantial expenses of settlement, approximated to be well over ₤ 1bn, and revealed it would stop briefly bidding for federal government agreements till after the present statutory public query.

It is yet to concur how much it will pay and its self-imposed time out on bidding for federal government agreements has actually done little to satiate its hunger for UK public sector work. Computer system Weekly has actually seen dripped Fujitsu internal interactions which expose the provider is targeting ₤ 1.3 bn in UK federal government organization in the next 12 months and has a stockpile of about ₤ 650m in agreements to satisfy.

Additional internal interactions seen by Computer Weekly likewise exposed that Fujitsu is investing greatly on handling the present scandal fallout. It has actually looked for external assistance in a task referred to as Holly, where it has actually engaged PR, ethical organization specialists and legal representatives, at an expense of ₤ 27m up until now.

According to information shown Computer Weekly by procurement professionals TussellFujitsu has actually just won one federal government agreement up until now in 2024, below 6 at the very same point in 2015.

The Post Office scandal wasExposed by Computer Weekly in 2009exposing the stories of 7 subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as an outcome of the accounting software application(see timeline of Computer Weekly posts about the scandal listed below).

Check out:What you require to learn about the Horizon scandal

Watch:ITV’s documentary– Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The genuine story

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