Fujitsu has moved to force the Post Office to disclose whether Horizon data requests will be used to investigate “any wrongdoing” by branch owner-operators, sparking a pushback from executives at the state-owned agency.
The development emerged in documents released to the public inquiry showing how hundreds of branch owner-operators were wrongly pursued through the courts based on evidence from Horizon that was later found to be incorrect. reliable.
Documents show Fujitsu, which developed the IT system, still runs it for the post office and controls branch access to all transaction records, and added two new questions to a data request form in May.
The inquiry heard last week that Fujitsu had imposed mandatory, non-negotiable requirements on the Post Office to provide additional information when requesting Audit Records Query (ARQ) information.
The first question at the beginning of the form asks whether the use of the data is: “in connection with an investigation by the Post Office, action taken or intended to be taken against the Postmaster General or Post Office staff” that may involve fraud, theft, breach of contract or any other suspicion of fraud, theft, breach of contract or any other suspicion at the relevant Post Office branch. inappropriate behavior occurred.
The second question asked whether the data would be used to help branch owner operators or postal workers receive financial compensation through one of the compensation programs run by the post office and the government.
Investigating lawyers asked Simon Oldnall, the branch’s technical director responsible for IT systems, about the Post Office’s objections to the new issues.
“Fujitsu actually raised these issues unilaterally with the post office,” Oudenall said. “We particularly feel that the first question is very, very broad. The second question, Fujitsu is very clear about why we need a lot of data. [financial] correct. Overall, we believe no mandatory changes are necessary.
When asked by attorneys why the Post Office was so averse to these questions, Oudenall said: “The Post Office is not going to take action against the postmaster general, so even as a question it doesn’t really mean anything. It feels like the wording is very broad, and it doesn’t really matter.” It has nothing to do with how the post office operates today.
Fujitsu’s forced changes coincided with a dispute between the post office and the software company over the use of IT data to support a criminal case against the post office owner.
The issue quickly escalated to Fujitsu Europe chief executive Paul Patterson, who wrote directly to Post Office chief executive Nick Read. Patterson wrote in May that he was “gravely concerned” about the Post Office’s continued enforcement actions against branch operators “and hopes Fujitsu will support such actions.”
Reed responded that this was a “fundamental misunderstanding” and that the contact was intended to prompt Fujitsu to cooperate with the police investigation.
Patterson said the nature of the inquiry’s request was “completely inappropriate” and said there were still “significant cultural issues” at the post office.
It was also reported that the Post Office is exploring eventually resuming the practice of taking branch owner-operators to court to recover damages civilly.
Last Tuesday, investigators saw another document from this summer titled “Loss Recovery Update.” In its “Options and Recommendations” section, the Post Office highlighted the “significant financial risk” of continuing to write off rather than pursue branch shortages.
It also said the current approach of not pursuing shortfalls unless post office operators agreed could lead to “a pattern of potentially embedding financial misconduct within the postmasters’ network, if there are no sanctions or consequences for failure to comply.” /environment of practice”. Follow appropriate policies or procedures.”
Horizon data is needed to bridge the financial shortfall of post office operators.
Oldnall said he was aware of the document and the “activity” surrounding changes to loss recovery strategies, and said he would have to “commission a piece of work” internally in order to use the data for such purposes.
The inquest will conclude this week and next, but will continue to hear evidence from Monday 4 November.