Fujitsu can have acquired greater than £3.4bn by means of contracts from organizations linked to the Treasury since 2019, regardless of its position within the Submit Workplace scandal, MPs have discovered.
The worldwide know-how firm, which is beneath intense scrutiny, has been awarded £1.4 billion since a 2019 Excessive Courtroom ruling discovered that there have been quite a few bugs and errors in its Horizon IT system. .
Greater than £2 billion of contracts had been agreed earlier than 2019 and had been lively within the following interval, the Treasury Committee of the Commons stated.
The committee – which examines Treasury spending and coverage – he wrote to the organizations final month together with HM Income and Customs (HMRC), the Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial institution of England (BoE) demanding particulars of their agreements with Fujitsu.
MPs known as for the disclosure of contracts after the top of Fujitsu in Europe admitted that the workers knew about defects in Horizon till 1999.
The committee stated all three spent appreciable sums with Fujitsu Providers Ltd or entities owned by Fujitsu International:
- HMRC has awarded Fujitsu eight contracts value £1.39 billion for the reason that ruling in 2019, whereas an extra six pre-ruling contracts remained lively after 2019 however have since ended.
- The FCA – a regulator unbiased of the federal government however reporting to the Treasury – agreed settlements value round £630m courting again to 2007 which continued to run after the Excessive Courtroom ruling, and nonetheless keep six contracts for a mixed complete of round £9m.
- The Financial institution of England confirmed that he had a contract value £417,000 from 2019 which expired in August 2020.
The committee had requested them whether or not Fujitsu's position within the Horizon scandal was taken under consideration throughout the bidding course of and whether or not they deliberate to terminate the deal in gentle of the scandal.
He stated that the one response acquired was a few potential termination from the FCA which confirmed that it thought of closing a contract with the agency as a consequence of poor efficiency, however determined to retain its companies.
Committee chair and Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin stated she “hopes it will assist deliver transparency and scrutiny round Fujitsu's position as a public sector provider”.
The highlight is on Fujitsu after the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Submit Workplacewhich characterize how a whole lot of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses had been wrongly chargeable for accounting errors within the defective software program developed by the corporate.
Between 1999 and 2015, greater than 700 had been prosecuted, inflicting many to lose their jobs, livelihoods and reputations.
It’s thought of the most important miscarriage of justice in British historical past.
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Rishi Sunak introduced {that a} new legislation can be launched to exonerate and compensate these caught up within the Horizon scandal and that those that had been a part of the group litigation order in opposition to the Submit Workplace will even be eligible for an upfront fee of £75,000.
Fujitsu provided its “deepest apologies” to the victims of the scandal and stated it could contribute to compensation funds for these wrongfully convicted.
On contracts, an HMRC spokesperson stated: “HMRC works with a whole lot of IT companions – huge and small – and all our contracts are publicly out there by means of Contracts Finder.
“The scale and complexity of our IT area signifies that many companions are concerned in constructing and sustaining virtually all of our programs and companies.”
A authorities spokesman stated: “The affect the Horizon scandal has had on postmasters and their households is completely horrific, and it’s essential that one thing like this by no means occurs once more.
“That’s the reason we have now launched a statutory inquiry into the scandal to unravel what went mistaken, in addition to present compensation for these affected.
“We welcome Fujitsu's determination to pause bidding for work with new authorities prospects till the investigation is full. Within the face of this, and as with all contracts, we proceed to keep up the conduct and Fujitsu's enterprise efficiency beneath evaluate”.
