Due to the Horizon supplier’s involvement in the Post Office scandal, Fujitsu’s English public sector company has lost over £50 million in sales this year.
The Japanese-owned IT giant’s head of public sector, Dave Riley, told staff during a company conference call that Fujitsu’s English public sector operation has lost between £50m and £60m in misplaced potential revenue this year so far.
Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office, Fujitsu’s UK subsidiary, “agreed with Japan a unique profile of the business than we had anticipated for this year,” according to Riley.
He said his revenue budget for the public sector business is £399m this year, compared to £450m-£460m forecast next year.
” Let’s call that gap of £50m to £60m the cost to the business of the media coverage and what’s happening in the public debate”, he said.
Riley added that Fujitsu’s Japanese headquarters has invested$ 200 million into the UK company to assist it with these difficulties.” There is that social obligation to look after the business and make sure we can continue to bid for common sector work,” he added.
Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s German CEO, stated in January that the company was “morally obligated” to contribute to the £1 billion plus costs that the UK taxpayers were facing as a result of the Horizon scandal.
Eight months afterward, Fujitsu has committed nothing to lessen the burden on taxpayers, but it is possible to receive up to £180 million from a contract extension with the Post Office, which is required to support Horizon for up to five years because a project to replace the contentious IT system failed.
Riley also addressed the outcry from employees over the company’s decision to not give staff a pay raise this year:” People are disappointed by the pay pot as a whole, which is understandable, but it is what the business can afford at this time given everything else going on.
One unhappy Fujitsu employee, who asked not to be identified, said:” Their priority is Fujitsu’s shareholders, never the subpostmasters, no employees and not customers”.
Fujitsu declined to comment on this story when Computer Weekly asked the company to do so.
Following the ITV drama that aired at the beginning of the year, Fujitsu has received more criticism and scrutiny.
Since 1999, the supplier has developed and provided Horizon software and support to the Post Office and subpostmasters. Due to software bugs, subpostmasters were held accountable for accounting issues, and many of the bugs led to improper prosecution. Fujitsu assisted the Post Office in assisting subpostmasters in hiding errors and placing the blame on the users in its place.
According to Fujitsu’s imperfect Horizon system, hundreds of subpostmasters and branch staff members were charged with accounting fraud and found guilty in court in the years 1999 and 2015. Despite knowing this might be the case, Fujitsu backed the Post Office in prosecuting subpostmasters and testified in court that the system did certainly lead to unexpected account shortfalls.
Fujitsu’s big public sector business, which is a legacy of ICL, which Fujitsu acquired in the late 1990s, is a significant source of income for the company in the UK. However, since the Post Office scandal broke in January, Fujitsu’s people sector deals have begun to dry up, largely as a result of an organization’s self-imposed bidding ban and self-imposed distancing from the supplier.
Fujitsu has n’t stopped looking for ways to win UK public sector business.
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, which broke the news about the cases of seven subpostmasters and the issues they had with Horizon accounting software, which caused the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history ( see below list of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009 ).
• Even read:  , What you need to know about the Horizon scandal , •
• Even watch:  , ITV’s documentary – , Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The true story , •
• Even read:  , Post Office and Fujitsu malevolence and incompetence means big taxpayers ‘ bill , •
