Secret contract proves Post Office and Fujitsu were aware of bugs in Horizon

Had the document been made available to defence lawyers, the Post Office scandal may never have happened

A 2006 contract between the Post Office and Fujitsu shows that both parties were aware of bugs in the Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting software, and also that Fujitsu could take control over the system, contradicting statements by the Post Office in its action against hundreds of sub-postmasters accused of fraud, some of whom took their own lives.

The document, uploaded to the Post Office Horizon Inquiry website, had apparently been overlooked in investigations so far. It was unearthed by forensic accountant Ron Warmington of Second Sight, who told Channel 4 News: “It’s hard to describe the covering up of this document, failure to disclose it as anything other than a lie. It’s downright deceptive, and frankly, evil.”

The document, marked “Commercial in Confidence” and dated 31st August 2006, shows that the Post Office was worried enough by flaws in Horizon to introduce a clause requiring Fujitsu to pay a penalty of £100 or £150 each time a bug in the system led to accounting errors.

This contradicts statements made in court by the Post Office when hundreds of post office operators were wrongfully convicted of fraud, with many of them ending up in prison. At that time The Post Office said it was not possible that errors in Horizon could have accounted for the discrepancies reported by the sub-postmasters.

In another section of the contract, which originated from Fujitsu’s senior services delivery manager with approval authorities including the Post Office’s head of systems operations, Fujitsu is required to “obtain authorisation from Post Office prior to amending the centrally held transaction data.”

Both parties had denied that it was possible to amend the data remotely in this way.

Information regarding bugs and central control have emerged during investigations, but arguably, had this document been made available to the defence at the time, the prosecution’s case would have collapsed and the miscarriage of justice would never have happened.

Paul Marshall, barrister for the sub-postmasters, described the document as “very important”.

“In a very structured way [the document] gives recognition to the acceptance on the part of both parties that there’s a major problem with data integrity within the Horizon system. And that, in a sense, is what the entire Post Office scandal is about,” he told Channel 4 News.

Lee Castleton, one of the sub-postmasters wrongly convicted of fraud, said: “Thirteen people potentially have taken their lives because of their treatment at the hands of these companies. It’s disgusting to think that even now, two decades on, we’re finding new documents that are intrinsic to what was going on. It’s absolutely abhorrent. It’s disgusting.”

Chair of the parliamentary Business and Trade Committee, Liam Byrne MP, said that some members or former members of the Post Office management were now “in line for prosecution” for perjury and corporate manslaughter.

He estimated that cost of finally compensating the former sub-postmasters would come to around £1.6 billion. “The question has got to come. When is Fujitsu going to start writing the cheques to the taxpayer for the incredible injustice they helped to cause?”

Fujitsu’s UK CEO, Paul Patterson, and the current head of the Post Office, Neil Brocklehurst, are due to come before the Business and Trade Committee on 6th January, in a session expected to focus on compensation for the victims of the scandal.