Horizon IT: Secret Fujitsu Deal Undermines Post Office Claims

A previously secret agreement from 19 years ago between the Post Office and Fujitsu has surfaced, potentially undermining the postal service's long-held assertions that they were unaware of flaws in their Horizon IT system that could lead to financial discrepancies. The 26-page contract, inked in 2006, explicitly grants both parties the authority to modify post office operators' branch accounts, directly contradicting previous claims that remote alterations of account balances were impossible.

This revelation comes as the Post Office faces intense scrutiny over the Horizon scandal, during which numerous branch operators were unjustly pursued for alleged financial shortfalls, leading to imprisonment and even tragic suicides. The existence of this confidential contract challenges the Post Office's consistent stance during criminal proceedings, where they maintained that no bugs existed within the Horizon system that could generate accounting shortfalls. The agreement, marked "Commercial in Confidence," even outlines penalty payments for Fujitsu, ranging from £100 to £150 per erroneous transaction managed by the Horizon IT system.

Over 900 individuals were wrongfully prosecuted as a consequence of the scandal, stemming from the faulty Horizon system that wrongly indicated account deficits. Post Office operators were then compelled to cover these fabricated shortfalls under threat of suspension and legal action. The contract, now accessible on the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry's website, details a process where the reconciliation service requires authorization from the Post Office before amending centrally held transaction data if inconsistencies are found between branch records and central database information.

Senior barrister for post office operators, Paul Marshall, commented that this document exposes a significant contradiction. He stated that the Post Office prosecuted postmasters and pursued group litigation based on the premise of being unaware of substantial Horizon system issues. However, the 2006 contract clearly indicates a recognized and substantial problem with Horizon's data integrity between branch offices and Fujitsu. Marshall emphasized that for two decades, the Post Office attributed account shortfalls solely to postmaster incompetence or dishonesty.

Lee Castleton, a former post office operator who was unjustly accused of false accounting and faced legal proceedings in 2006, expressed profound distress upon learning of the document. He described feeling "physically sick" knowing that individuals within both organizations were aware of a contract for something they repeatedly denied existed. Castleton highlighted the immense distress and victimisation suffered by those affected, lamenting that this crucial document, which could have fundamentally altered his case by revealing the possibility of remote account adjustments, was withheld. He underscored the devastating human cost, mentioning that potentially 13 individuals took their lives due to the mistreatment, calling the ongoing discovery of such intrinsic documents "abhorrent" and "disgusting."

In response to the revelations, a Post Office spokesperson issued an "unequivocal apology" for the "hurt and suffering" caused by the Horizon IT scandal. They asserted that the organization is now focused on transparent cooperation with the public inquiry, providing fair financial redress, and implementing restorative justice as part of its transformation.

Fujitsu, meanwhile, stated that these matters are under investigation by the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry and declined to comment further while the process is ongoing.