‘How a lot is Fujitsu going to pay?’ Questions for Publish Workplace IT agency because it faces MPs | Fujitsu

The function performed by the know-how agency Fujitsu within the Publish Workplace Horizon scandal will come below the microscope this week, with the judge-led inquiry and a committee of MPs resulting from query firm workers at separate hearings on Tuesday.

It was not Fujitsu that relentlessly pursued 1000’s of native department owner-operators, falsely accusing them of theft and fraud even after it turned clear that the Horizon IT system was producing incorrect information. That was the Publish Workplace.

However the Japanese know-how firm constructed the ill-fated system, below a contract that has since been prolonged to run till 2025, reaching a lifetime worth of £2.4bn. It additionally supported the Publish Workplace in its pursuit of greater than 900 put up workplace operators, offering skilled witnesses for personal prosecutions of harmless department owner-operators, a lot of whom had been jailed.

After the ITV dramatisation of the scandal introduced it again into the headlines and helped immediate authorities strikes to quash all associated convictions, this week might be the primary time that Fujitsu has been known as to account in any significant manner on the inquiry and a particular listening to of the enterprise choose committee introduced final week.

Right here’s what they could be requested.

What did Fujitsu bosses know and when?

MPs at Tuesday’s choose committee listening to will interrogate what Fujitsu and the Publish Workplace knew about flaws within the Horizon system and the way early they knew it.

The Publish Workplace first turned conscious of Horizon’s deficiencies in 2010. Nonetheless, the investigative journalist Nick Wallis, an skilled on the scandal, has beforehand claimed that Fujitsu was conscious of gremlins within the system earlier than that.

Fujitsu’s UK boss, Paul Patterson, is scheduled to present proof to MPs, who will attempt to drill down into the timeline of company culpability.

Patterson’s rapid predecessor, Duncan Tait, was handed a £2.6m payoff when he left the corporate in 2019, the Guardian revealed final week. MPs would possibly ask in regards to the phrases of that fee.

They may additionally search readability on whether or not it was Tait who made the now notorious remark, based on earlier testimony by the previous Publish Workplace boss Paula Vennells, that Horizon was like “Fort Knox”, the US navy base that’s typically conflated with the closely guarded gold bullion depository close by.

Did Fujitsu contribute to wrongful prosecutions?

On the judge-led inquiry, Fujitsu employees are resulting from give proof in regards to the firm’s function within the varied authorized battles between the Publish Workplace and victims of the Horizon scandal.

Liam Byrne, one of many MPs on the enterprise choose committee, advised the Guardian: “It’s excessive time Fujitsu broke their vow of silence about whether or not they put revenue earlier than individuals and stayed silent about Horizon’s issues when their proof was getting used to ship harmless individuals to jail.”

4 former Fujitsu workers who suggested the Publish Workplace on the Horizon system, together with throughout prosecutions, will give proof this week. MPs will likely be eager to quiz them on the function of Gareth Jenkins, the previous chief architect at Fujitsu, who gave proof defending the Horizon laptop system in a lot of the prosecutions.

Ought to Fujitsu pay compensation?

Calls have been rising for Fujitsu to contribute to compensation funds for Horizon victims, a invoice that might attain £1bn, funded by taxpayers.

That is more likely to be one of many key targets for MPs on the choose committee, notably provided that Fujitsu has but to face any penalties, monetary or contractual, for its flawed work for the Publish Workplace.

The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has advised Fujitsu might be compelled to cough up if the inquiry finds it was at fault. MPs will query Patterson on whether or not Fujitsu expects any such declare from both the Publish Workplace or the federal government and the way it might react.

“How a lot is Fujitsu going to pay in the direction of the […] compensation now owed as a result of their system malfunctioned so badly that harmless lives had been destroyed,” mentioned Byrne.

Ought to Fujitsu be profitable authorities contracts?

Fujitsu has gained practically 200 public sector contracts price £6.78bn, based on evaluation by the procurement specialists Tussell.

As authorities officers started to grasp the total horror of the Horizon scandal, they sought in useless to exclude Fujitsu from tendering for public contracts below the dubiously titled “Challenge Sushi”, the Monetary Instances reported on Monday.

The Publish Workplace additionally sought recommendation from a giant consultancy agency in 2012 on tips on how to extricate itself from the Horizon contract, a well-placed supply advised the Guardian.

It didn’t work. The £2.4bn Horizon contract remains to be going and different contracts with authorities our bodies together with the Ministry of Defence and a £1bn cope with HM Income and Customs. The latter will come into sharp focus later this week as a result of Fujitsu employees at HMRC are resulting from go on strike over pay. That might go away HMRC struggling for capability, simply on the peak time of 12 months for tax returns being filed.

Fujitsu and the Publish Workplace have each repeatedly mentioned that they might assist the inquiry however had been unable to remark whereas it was ongoing.