The UK’s Commons Treasury Committee has asked 21 public sector groups, such as the Treasury and HMRC, to make information about contracts given to Fujitsu public. These changes are made after the Post Office computer system scandal, in which hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly charged because of Fujitsu’s flawed Horizon IT system.
The Treasury Committee wants to find out how much public money has been spent on contracts with Fujitsu since the High Court ruled on the broken system in 2019. Even with the controversy, Fujitsu is thought to have won over £4 billion in government contracts in the last five years.
Fujitsu said it was sorry for its involvement in the Horizon scandal and committed not to take on any more government contracts until the public investigation is over. The Royal Mint, the Bank of England, the Crown Estate and the Financial Conduct Authority are among the organizations that the Treasury Committee is investigating. They want to know more about contracts that were given to Fujitsu Services Limited or other Fujitsu Global-owned companies.
Fujitsu’s Involvement in Post Office Scandal Under Scrutiny
From 1999 to 2015, the Post Office secretly prosecuted many sub-postmasters and postmistresses based on the flawed Horizon system. This led to false accusations of theft, fraud, and false accounting. People who were hurt went to jail, and others died without getting justice. Even though only 93 wrongfully convicted people have been set free so far, thousands are still waiting for compensation payments more than 20 years later.
The Treasury Committee looked into Fujitsu’s contract awards because of the recent public outcry and the government’s plans to clear the accused and pay the victims. The committee’s chair, Harriett Baldwin, was horrified by the wrongs done to the victims and stressed the need to look closely at the public money that was spent with Fujitsu after the High Court’s decision. The committee sent a letter asking for answers within two weeks. The letter asks about contract values, how competitive awards are made, Horizon system problems that need to be looked at, and keeping an eye on Fujitsu’s work.
There are questions about whether contracts were put out to bid, whether the Horizon scandal was taken into account during due diligence, and whether ending contracts with Fujitsu was even thought about. Even after the Horizon scandal came to light, the UK government kept giving Fujitsu big state contracts. Fujitsu has said it has a “moral obligation” to help pay victims, but Cabinet Office Minister Alex Burghart pointed out that the company has decided not to bid on public contracts while the public inquiry is still going on.
During the investigation, Paul Patterson, who was in charge of Fujitsu’s European branch, admitted that the company had failed, saying that they had “clearly let society down and the sub-postmasters down.” The investigation is still going on, which is helping to shed light on how complicated it is for government contracts, technology failures, and the people who were involved in the Horizon incident.
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