Fujitsu to cease bidding for Government contracts throughout Post Office inquiry
The firm behind the defective Horizon IT system has stated it is going to cease bidding for Government contracts whereas the inquiry into the Post Office scandal is ongoing.
Rishi Sunak has refused to ban Fujitsu from getting recent taxpayer money regardless of the Japanese big admitting it knew about faults in its Horizon system that led to postmasters being wrongly prosecuted. The PM’s spokesman stated the Government would want to attend for the general public inquiry into the scandal to conclude. Fujitsu has now written to ministers to say it’s “voluntarily” selecting to not bid for Government contracts, except requested, whereas the inquiry is ongoing.
Speaking within the Commons, Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart stated: “This morning (the) Cabinet Office received a letter from Fujitsu voluntarily undertaking not to bid for Government contracts whilst the inquiry is ongoing, unless of course the Government ask them to.” It got here in response to a query from Conservative former cupboard minister Sir David Davis, who referred to as for corporations like Fujitsu to be blocked from bidding for future Government contracts on the idea of getting “terrible track records”.
Labour MP Kate Osborne, who has campaigned on the problem, stated: “I’m pleased that Fujitsu has said this but I don’t think they’ve suddenly found their morals. I think what’s happened is there’s been massive reputational damage to them because of this scandal.” She questioned whether the Government had pressured Japanese giant to volunteer to stop bidding so it did not have to publicly show “doubt about Fujitsu when they’ve already awarded and they already hold literally billions of pounds worth of contracts”.
Ms Osborne also called for “a full review of the existing contracts that they’ve got because I don’t think anybody has any trust in them”. She first referred to as for the Government to pause Fujitsu’s contracts in Parliament in October 2022, however ministers declined.
The Jarrow MP’s constituent Christopher Head, who had been Britain’s youngest postmaster, was pushed out of enterprise after he was wrongly blamed for a £88,000 shortfall. “Chris and the rest of the subpostmasters have seen Fujitsu win contract after contract whilst this has been going on and they must be furious about it,” she stated. “They’re making millions or billions of pounds and the senior people are awarding themselves bonuses while they’re still fighting many years later for any kind of recompense or compensation for the ordeal they’ve all been put through. The fact they’re still fighting for what they believe the correct level of compensation is is disgraceful.”
She additionally described it as “nonsense” that the Government is ready to take motion till after the inquiry, which is because of finish later this yr. Referring to a 2019 High Court case that dominated Fujitsu’s Horizon system contained bugs and errors, Ms Osborne added: “It’s not necessary [to wait for the result of the inquiry]. The evidence is already here.”
Fujitsu Europe Director Paul Patterson informed MPs this week he thought Fujitsu had a “moral obligation” to fund compensation for harmless Post Office employees. But a press release from the corporate at this time additionally confirmed its contribution won’t be discovered till after the inquiry. “Based on the findings of the inquiry, we will also be working with the UK government on the appropriate actions, including contribution to compensation,” the agency stated. Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch earlier this week requested pressing talks with Fujitsu to hammer out the compensation package deal for sub-postmasters.
More than 700 Post Office department managers had been handed legal convictions between 1999 and 2015 after Horizon made it seem as if cash was lacking from their shops. Since 2012, the general public sector has awarded Fujitsu virtually 200 contracts value a mixed whole of £6.8 billion, based on analysts Tussell.
It supplies IT companies to Government departments together with the Home Office, the Foreign Office, Defra and the Ministry of Defence. Contracts embrace the Police National Computer, which shops legal data, the Government’s flood warning system, and the nationwide emergency alerts system launched final yr.
