European boss of Post Office IT scandal firm Fujitsu to step down

"The European boss of Fujitsu, the company behind the Horizon software at the heart of the Post Office IT scandal, is to step down from his role in March. Paul Patterson, who is the chief executive of the European division of the company, will become non-executive chair of Fujitsu's UK business, where he will continue managing the company's response to the inquiry into the scandal."

"Two years ago, he told the judge-led hearings Fujitsu had a moral obligation to pay financial redress to the hundreds of post office operators wrongfully pursued through the courts over discrepancies in their accounts linked to bugs in Horizon software. He admitted the company had known the accounting IT system was faulty since the 1990s, with the government estimating the final cost to taxpayers of payouts to be 1.8bn."

"Patterson told MPs: When we last spoke I agreed with you on the moral obligation topic. I have maintained that position over the last two years since I saw you. We need to be informed by Sir Wyn's report. We want to see that report. The quantum we will decide when we get to the final report. We were involved from the very start, [Horizon] did have bugs and errors in systems and [we] did help the Post Off"

Paul Patterson will step down as chief executive of Fujitsu's European division in March and will become non-executive chair of Fujitsu's UK business, continuing to manage the company's response to the Post Office IT scandal. Patterson joined Fujitsu in 2010 and represented the company at the public inquiry. He said Fujitsu had a moral obligation to pay financial redress to hundreds of post office operators wrongly pursued through the courts over discrepancies linked to bugs in Horizon software. He admitted the accounting IT system was known to be faulty since the 1990s, with government estimates of taxpayer payouts at £1.8bn. Patterson told MPs he rejected characterisations of Fujitsu as a parasite and said the company will calculate the quantum of redress once Sir Wyn Williams publishes the final report; the inquiry's first tranche revealed the scandal may have led to more than 13 suicides.

Read at www.theguardian.com