Horizon firm Fujitsu faces calls to pay compensation as Gov contracts extended
Pressure is mounting on computer firm Fujitsu to compensate subpostmasters for their faulty software system Horizon which saw thousands affected, with many losing money, some their homes and liberty, and a few their lives.
Evidence from the faulty computer system secured the prosecutions of 700 sub-postmasters between 2000 and 2014, with the Post Office prosecuting them for false accounting, fraud and theft. Out of these, only 11 have been compensated in full. Now Lord Arbuthnot and Baron Falconer are leading calls for Fujitsu to pay out. The peers have also called for a full statutory public inquiry “without the restrictions and limitations of the current one”.
The Government has continued to work with Fujitsu in the wake of the scandal and has awarded it public sector contracts worth £3billion in the last 10 years. In November, the Post Office extended one contract with the firm – worth an estimated £36million – through to March 2025.
The subject of subpostmasters and the Horizon scandal has made headlines again in the last few days after an ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office was aired. The four-part series demonstrated the cost to the individuals involved.
In a column for The Sunday Times, Lord Arbuthnot and Baron Falconer said: “The inquiry needs to examine in detail the role of Fujitsu, which provided and managed the faulty software. Was Fujitsu completely unaware of the devastating effect of its actions? Should it not contribute to the compensation claims of hundreds of sub-postmasters?
Passport warning as prices to increase from today if you want to get a new one
Pride of Britain winner Alan Bates (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)"There needs to be a fast-track procedure, within the inquiry, to calculate how each individual sub-postmaster should be compensated, for loss of money, for the trauma through which they have been forced and in many cases for the punishments they have wrongly been given.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves. But the value in shame is that it encourages one to do better. Provided we take the right steps, without further foot-dragging, we can begin to put things back in place. But for too many sub-postmasters, that can never happen.”
In a statement Fujitsu said: “The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge. The Inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters’ lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering.
“Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it. Out of respect for the inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
