Fujitsu faces mounting strain to foot Horizon scandal invoice as MPs up in arms | UK | News | EUROtoday

Computer large Fujitsu may very well be pressured to pay a whole lot of tens of millions of kilos for its position within the Post Office scandal after ministers insisted taxpayers shouldn’t be “left with the tab”.

MPs are additionally demanding that the agency be banned from bidding for profitable ­public sector contracts.

More than £148million has been paid to 2,700 victims of the Horizon IT scandal, with a whole lot of others nonetheless to obtain compensation.

But Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake mentioned: “The taxpayer shouldn’t be left with the tab for this scandal so I will be looking at the extent of any other organisation’s culpability.”

Writing within the Sunday Express, Mr Hollinrake described the scandal as “one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in history” and urged these wrongfully ­convicted to take authorized motion.

It follows warnings that making the publicly owned Post Office pay compensation is successfully a cost on taxpayers.

Fujitsu supplied the Horizon accounting system put in in 11,500 branches.

It was ultimately proved to be defective however solely after the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses for supposed crimes reminiscent of false accounting.

Liam Byrne, chairman of the House of Commons Business Committee, which is able to this week interrogate Fujitsu and Post Office bosses, mentioned: “Fujitsu is reported to have recognized there was one thing basically flawed with the system.”

“What moral obligation do they feel to contribute royally to the hundreds of ­millions of pounds of compensation that must now be paid to the innocent?”

The Japanese tech giant has been awarded an estimated £6.8billion of contracts from the public sector since 2012.

Lucrative deals included £200million to work on the Police National Computer, which is used to check criminal records and car number plates.

Labour’s Kevan Jones, one of the first MPs to take up the sub-postmasters’ cause, said: “Fujitsu has been notable by their silence. They need to come clean and be banned from all future government contracts until they do.”

Victims of the scandal have additionally insisted that Fujitsu ought to pay, with one, a former Regimental Sgt Major, writing on to the under-fire agency.

David Avery, 82, served 24 years within the Army however it was a 19-year stint as a sub-postmaster that pushed him to the brink of chapter on account of pc errors.

He was pressured to borrow cash and even had his automobile repossessed as he struggled to cowl the shortfalls.

He mentioned: “People were wrongly accused of crimes and others killed themselves with the shame of it.”

“My wife Lorraine and I had two young children and we all suffered due to having no money from 2000 onwards. I finally retired aged 67 in 2008.

“After much messing about I have had a payout from the Post Office Historical Shortfall scheme but now, having heard about the Fujitsu situation, I feel compensation from them should be forthcoming.

“My lawyers quantified my loss at £140,000 and I haven’t got all that back yet but I believe morally that compensation should come from Fujitsu as a top-up to the Post Office payouts.”

Others expressed fury on the lack of regret from Fujitsu and Post Office Ltd. Former sub-postmaster Vijay Parekh, 65, who spent six months in jail for against the law he didn’t commit, mentioned: “Executives are still working, getting huge amounts of money.”

“We haven’t been able to move on because our lives were ruined.”

A Fujitsu spokesperson mentioned: “The Post Office Horizon IT statutory Inquiry is examining complex events stretching back 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.”