Fujitsu exec admits 'moral obligation' to help Post Office staff

The head of technology company Fujitsu's European operations told a UK parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday the enterprise has a "moral obligation" to contribute to compensation for people wrongly accused and convicted of offenses because of his company's faulty accounting software.

He also said his "gut feeling" is that people knew it was not working properly years before it was admitted.

Fujitsu's Horizon system was used by the UK's Post Office, and financial discrepancies resulted in hundreds of innocent people being wrongly accused and jailed in what has become known as the Post Office Scandal.

After rumbling on for decades, the story has become front page news and the main talking point in British politics after a recent UK television drama telling the victims' story.

When quizzed by members of Parliament, Paul Patterson said the company, which has won contracts from the UK government as recently as last month, has an obligation to help with financial redress for what he called a "travesty", adding that Fujitsu was an ethical company that had fallen short of its own standards.

At the hearing, marketing material for Horizon was read out, describing it as "the most advanced and secure electronic banking and retail network in Europe".

When asked why action had not been taken earlier, if people knew there were problems with the system, Patterson replied: "I don't know, I really don't know … On a personal level, I wish I did and following my employment in 2019, I've looked back on those situations for the company and from the evidence I've seen, I just don't know."

Patterson also said he has not met any of the affected sub-postmasters in person, but he had "personally watched the drama on TV and read the evidence that was given in the impact statements by sub-postmasters".

Nick Read, chief executive officer of the Post Office Group, was also quizzed about what he knew.

When asked if there should be disciplinary action against former board members of the Post Office if a cover-up is found, he replied: "If evidence is produced that there was some form of coverup, then clearly action needs to be taken."

Inquiry committee member Ian Lavery was heavily critical of both Patterson and Read for the lack of substance to their answers, calling them "absolutely negative".

"If we're bringing people in front of the committee, we would expect them at least to have knowledge of the history of what's happened — (especially for) something as big as this — and I'm absolutely appalled at the answers which we've received," he said.

Before the executives spoke, former sub-postmaster Alan Bates, who has led the compensation battle, spoke of his frustration.