- Written by Dearvale Jordan
- BBC News business reporter
image source, Getty Images
Fujitsu has informed the government that it will not bid on public contracts while the investigation into the Post Office incident continues.
Minister Alex Burgert said the technology company had informed the Cabinet Office of the decision in writing.
Fujitsu developed Horizon software that was used by post offices, but was later found to be flawed.
This relates to one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in the UK.
More than 900 subpostmasters and postal workers have been indicted after flawed software falsely made it appear as if money was missing from their branches.
“This morning () the Cabinet Office received a letter from Fujitsu voluntarily undertaking not to bid on government contracts while the investigation is ongoing, unless, of course, the government requests it,” Burkhardt told the House of Commons on Thursday. said.
The government continues to award public contracts worth billions of pounds to Fujitsu after it was revealed that a flaw in accounting software Horizon caused shortages to appear at Post Office branches. .
This led to hundreds of branch managers being wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting charges.
Mr Burkhardt made the statement after former cabinet minister Sir David Davis called for companies such as Fujitsu to be blocked from bidding for government contracts due to their “terrible track record”.
Government lawyers said it was legally impossible to discriminate against companies based on their performance, the paper said.
But Sir David told the House of Commons: “Government lawyers have advised that this is not possible. They are wrong.”
“Will the government then think more seriously about blocking large companies with a terrible track record like Fujitsu from bidding for future contracts? And if absolutely necessary, legislate accordingly? Are you going to do that?” he asked.
At that point, Burkhardt announced that Fujitsu had voluntarily withdrawn from bidding on future government contracts.
The Post Office, which is fully funded by the government, still uses Horizon and paid Fujitsu £95m to extend the system for a further two years after plans to move to Amazon were abandoned. .
He said the Postal Service knew early on about “bugs and errors” in the Horizon software. However, the Postal Service continued with the prosecution.
Mr Patterson also told parliamentarians in a hearing that Fujitsu had a “moral obligation” to help compensate a subpostmaster wrongly accused of a software defect.
Japan-based Fujitsu Group said on Thursday it would “work with the UK government on appropriate measures, including contributing to reparations.”
It added: “The UK statutory public inquiry, in which our UK subsidiary is cooperating fully, is investigating a complex case that has developed over many years, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to this cooperation.” he added.
“The Fujitsu Group hopes for a speedy resolution to achieve a just outcome for the victims.”
