Japanese tech big Fujitsu is going through rising strain from U.Okay. political quarters over its function in a scandal that noticed lots of of publish workplace homeowners prosecuted for accounting discrepancies.
However as Fujitsu has emerged as a number one protagonist in a saga that has endured for practically a quarter-of-a-century, the federal government has continued to provide the Japanese tech big contracts value billions of kilos as considered one of its strategic suppliers, even after a U.Okay. court docket discovered Fujitsu’s accounting software program to be defective and unreliable.
The British Put up Workplace Scandal was thrust again into the general public consciousness final week following U.Okay. broadcaster ITV’s four-part serialization, Mr. Bates vs. The Put up Workplace, which recounts how greater than 700 sub-postmasters (Put up Workplace franchisees) have been wrongfully prosecuted for fraud, false accounting, and theft over a 15-year interval, with many imprisoned, shedding their livelihoods and going through chapter.
As issues finally transpired, the “balancing” errors within the sub-postmasters’ books have been attributable to a defective IT system that had been launched by the Authorities in 2000 to digitalize social profit funds. The software program, dubbed Horizon, was developed by Worldwide Computer systems Restricted (ICL), a British firm that got here beneath full Fujitsu possession in 1998, earlier than being subsumed by the Fujitsu model in 2001.
Marketing campaign
A longstanding marketing campaign to safe justice for sub-postmasters that had been convicted was established in 2009, with alliance members arguing that Horizon was responsible for the monetary discrepancies. An extended, controversy-strewn impartial personal inquiry closed in 2015 with the Put up Workplace itself concluding that there was no system-wide IT issues, main the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance to kick-off authorized motion, culminating with a £58 million settlement in December 2019 — and a Excessive Courtroom ruling that the Horizon system wasn’t strong or dependable.
Because the begin of this 12 months, the British Put up Workplace Scandal has dominated headlines and public dialog within the U.Okay. That it has taken a tv drama to generate this degree of consideration, when the entire episode has been coated extensively within the information media for a few years, is probably a narrative in itself. However there are actually renewed requires Fujitsu to face justice, with Member of Parliament (MP) and former House Secretary Priti Patel publicly calling for Fujitsu — and the Put up Workplace — to be “held to account.”
Politicians have additionally requested firm officers to take part in an proof session in Parliament subsequent week, with the chair of the Commons Enterprise and Commerce Choose Committee, Liam Byrne MP, saying that it’s “very important that Fujitsu confess how they obtained it so mistaken,” questioning how the corporate has been in a position to proceed taking public sector contracts.
Certainly, regardless of all of the furore in recent times, the Authorities awarded 107 contracts value £4.5 billion to Fujitsu between January 2020 — after a U.Okay. court docket had already conveyed its misgivings over Fujitsu’s software program — and the tip of 2023, based on knowledge supplied to TechCrunch by public sector market intelligence firm Tussell. The latest contract was for a Northern Eire Training Authority, which inked a £485 million deal simply 3 weeks in the past for Fujitsu to assist a brand new Faculty Administration System (SMS).
However extremely, £2.4 billion of those funds have been awarded for the Put up Workplace’s Horizon system itself, with a £36 million extension signed simply two months in the past to maintain issues working till March, 2025. The Put up Workplace says it had deliberate to transition to a brand new cloud-based infrastructure, however that it had met important technical challenges and has needed to stay with Fujitsu to handle its on-premises infrastructure.
Some 24 years after the primary Put up Workplace convictions that relied on Horizon software program knowledge, no person from Fujitsu has been held to account. Police have interviewed former Fujitsu workers over potential perjury on the authentic sub-postmaster trials, whereas a statutory public inquiry into the Horizon IT system has additionally been ongoing since 2021.
What’s clear from these previous 10 days is that no matter investigations have been already ongoing into the scandal, Fujitsu now will come beneath larger scrutiny — and all it took was a TV dramatization to get the general public and politicians to actually care.
“It’s clear that Fujitsu faces severe questions that demand a response,” Jonathan Reynolds, Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Enterprise and Commerce, stated in Parliament this week. “Whether it is discovered that Fujitsu knew the extent of what was occurring, there must be penalties that match the size of the injustice.”
TechCrunch has contacted Fujitsu to remark for the story. It is going to be up to date when and if the corporate replies.
