A boss on the software program agency on the centre of the Post Office scandal has admitted he is conscious of witness statements being edited to take away references to identified bugs.
Fujitsu European boss Paul Patterson, admitted it was “shameful” and “appalling” that the agency did not acknowledge faults with the Horizon IT system. He was instructed to clarify why “bugs, errors and defects” did not discover their means into witness statements to the Post Office used to prosecute sub-postmasters.
He instructed the inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of a whole bunch of sub-postmasters: “On a personal level, I’m surprised that that detail was not included in the witness statements given by Fujitsu staff to the Post Office and I’ve seen some evidence of, of editing of witness statements by by others.”
He admitted it was “shameful” and “appalling”. Mr Patterson mentioned bugs, errors and defects within the Horizon IT system had been identified about by “all parties” and have been identified for “many, many years”.
Counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC has requested him: “You know, I think that Fujitsu employees provided witness statements to the Post Office for the purposes of the prosecution of subpostmasters. And that speaking in general terms, these bugs, errors and defects did not find their way into those witness statements.”
Mr Patterson mentioned he did not know why this had occurred. In one other change, Mr Beer pressed him on how a lot the corporate knew about faults with the Horizon system.
He mentioned: “From Fujitsu’s perspective, is this right, as a company for the last couple of years, it has known of the existence of these bugs, errors and defects at a corporate level?” Mr Patterson responded: “Yes. In fact all the bugs and errors have been known on one level, or not, for many, many years. Right from the very start of the deployment of this system there were bugs and errors and defects which were well known to all parties.”
Reiterating his apology to subpostmasters as he gave proof to the probe on Friday, Mr Patterson mentioned: “To the subpostmasters and their families, we apologise. Fujitsu apologises and is sorry for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice.
“This inquiry is inspecting these occasions forensically over many, many many years, which contain many events, not least Fujitsu and the Post Office, however different organisations and people. We are decided to proceed to help this inquiry and get to the reality wherever it lays and on the conclusion of the inquiry and the steering from this inquiry, interact with Government on appropriate contribution and redress to the subpostmasters and their households.”
More than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets.