Firm at centre of Post Office scandal has held more than £3.4billion in contracts linked to Treasury since 2019
THE firm at the centre of the Post Office scandal has held more than £3.4 billion in contracts linked to the Treasury since 2019.
Fujitsu built the faulty Horizon system which saw hundreds of Post Office workers thrown in prison.
They have been accused of a cover up and ministers want the Japanese firm to foot the bill if the inquiry finds them culpable.
Now new figures unearthed by MPs lay bare the tech giant’s deals with public organisations linked to the Treasury.
Fresh deals worth around £1.4 billion were struck with the firm despite a landmark high court victory in 2019, which found the IT system was at fault.
And more than £2 billion worth of contracts were agreed before 2019 and remained active in the following period, MPs on the influential Commons Treasury Committee found.
They wrote to organisations including HM Revenue and Customs, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England to demand details of their agreements with Fujitsu.
Committee chairwoman and Tory MP Harriett Baldwin said: “We have unearthed some information which, I believe, goes beyond what is known by the Cabinet Office.
“I hope this will aid transparency and scrutiny around the role of Fujitsu as a public sector supplier.”
Scrutiny of the scandal ramped up after the saga was dramatised in ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
A statutory inquiry seeking to establish the full facts is ongoing.
Fujitsu has offered its “deepest apologies” to victims of the scandal and said it would contribute towards compensation payments for those wrongly convicted.
A Government spokesperson said: “We welcome Fujitsu’s decision to pause bidding for work with new Government customers until such time as the inquiry concludes. Ahead of that, and as with all contracts, we continue to keep Fujitsu’s conduct and commercial performance under review.”