Put up Workplace offers controversial Fujitsu contract one other 365 days

The Put up Workplace’s controversial contract with Fujitsu has been extended one other 365 days to assist the organisation pickle up its exit

Karl Flinders,
Emea Declare Editor, Pc Weekly

Published: 07 Apr 2021 13: 00

The Put up Workplace will retain its controversial Horizon contract with Fujitsu till 2024, following a one-365 days extension to its retail and accounting gadget agreement.

The additional 365 days for the contract, which is on the centre of a scandal that ruined the lives of tons of of subpostmasters, will mark £42m.

The extension is being awarded to augment the Put up Workplace while it ends primarily the most up-to-date Horizon contract. According to the contract stare, it has agreed to lengthen its contract with Fujitsu for Horizon, on the moment attributable to cease in 2023, by 12 months, which is ready to take it to the cease of March 2024.

In a contract award stare, the Put up Workplace acknowledged: “In sing to pickle up the Horizon Agreement for expiry, and in sing to obtain transitional toughen from Fujitsu Services following such expiry, the Horizon Agreement will most doubtless be extended for a time period of an extra one 365 days.

“In parallel, Put up Workplace continues to revise and build its gadget architecture and restore offer mannequin,” it added.

Hundreds of subpostmasters, who maintain and pickle up Put up Workplace Branches, like been the recount of the instrument on the core of the contract, acknowledged as Horizon, since its introduction in 1999.

When launched, the gadget used to be presupposed to revolutionise how branches feature by automating largely manual processes. Soon after its introduction, subpostmasters began suffering unexplained accounting shortfalls, which they suspected like been introduced about by the gadget.

In 2009, Pc Weekly knowledgeable the tales of seven subpostmasters tormented by the losses, which led to many extra who had suffered losses coming forward.

A total bunch of subpostmasters like been blamed for the losses as their contract with the Put up Workplace acknowledged they like been responsible if they’ll also merely no longer mark shortfalls. (Glance timeline below for Pc Weekly protection since 2009).

Subpostmasters had to pay assist shortfall or face prosecution. Folk who did no longer repay the money like been prosecuted, with some despatched to prison, while many paid spacious fines. The lives of subpostmasters across the country like been ruined, with these no longer prosecuted repaying money attributable to losses that had nothing to enact with them and didn’t in fact exist out of doors of the Horizon gadget.

In 2019, a Excessive Court docket community litigation saw 550 subpostmasters successfully sue the Put up Workplace. The rob, Peter Fraser, acknowledged the Put up Workplace’s claims that the Horizon gadget had no errors used to be “the 21^st century equivalent of sustaining that the Earth is flat”.

Extinct Fujitsu workers are on the moment below investigation by the Metropolitan Police over potentially committing perjury at some level of the prosecution of subpostmasters for financial crimes.

Is named the Horizon scandal, it is now regarded as one among the finest miscarriages of justice in UK ancient previous. Around 50 prosecuted subpostmasters had their cases despatched for enchantment on the Court docket of Appeal and Southwark Crown Court docket. The six despatched to the latter had their criminal prosecutions quashed in December, and 42 subpostmasters will later this month hear judgements on their appeals despatched in March.

The contract stare for the Horizon extension outlines how files superhighway site hosting and on-premise datacentre operations services and network services will no longer be extended, and will most doubtless get replaced by cloud-primarily based files superhighway site hosting.

The Put up Workplace needs to continue to catch admission to Fujitsu experts. “A activity will most doubtless be added to facilitate catch admission to to specified Fujitsu intellectual property to be in a local to assist the Put up Workplace on its improvement and modernisation of the Horizon gadget and exit from the Horizon Agreement,” acknowledged the contract stare.

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