"Two years ago Paul Patterson said Fujitsu had a moral obligation to pay financial redress to the victims of Horizon admitting it 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. On Tuesday, Patterson was taken to task by the Commons business and trade committee for Fujitsu's continued refusal to reveal a compensation figure or make a provision for it in the publicly listed Japanese company's financial accounts."
"Liam Byrne, the Labour MP and the chair of the committee, accused Fujitsu of behaving like a parasite on the British state for continuing to make millions from government IT contracts while refusing to commit to a Horizon financial redress figure. The scandal, in which more than 1,000 people were wrongly legally pursued over discrepancies in their post office branch accounts linked to faulty software developed by Fujitsu, has been labelled the worst miscarriage of justice in UK history."
Fujitsu continues to earn hundreds of millions from UK government contracts while declining to disclose a compensation figure for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal. Paul Patterson had previously said Fujitsu had a moral obligation to pay redress and admitted the accounting IT system was faulty since the 1990s. The government estimates total payouts could cost taxpayers £1.8bn. More than 1,000 people were wrongly prosecuted over discrepancies linked to the faulty software. Fujitsu UK holds contracts worth about £500m if not terminated early and has paused bidding for new public contracts pending the final inquiry report. Patterson said the company would walk away from contracts if asked.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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