Ex-Fujitsu govt says he feels ‘aggrieved’ by injury carried out to Horizon’s repute

A former govt of Fujitsu, the corporate that developed the Put up Workplace’s Horizon IT system, has advised a public inquiry he felt “aggrieved” that what he thought was a “good system” had been positioned into such disrepute by the scandal, and stated he believed that the “actual concern” was the best way prison prosecutions of submit workplace operators had been dealt with by the state-owned physique.

Richard Christou, the previous chief govt and govt chairman of Fujitsu Companies Holdings, was testifying on the inquiry, which is inspecting why the Put up Workplace prosecuted and ruined a whole lot of individuals, alleging monetary shortfalls of their submit workplace department accounts. Regardless of campaigns, it took years for the Put up Workplace to confess that faults with Horizon had been behind most of the shortfalls.

Christou, who was chief govt between 2000 and 2004, was requested why no Fujitsu whistleblowers had raised issues to him concerning the skill of Fujitsu workers to remotely entry the Horizon IT system and to vary the department accounts of submit workplace operators.

Flora Web page, a barrister representing quite a lot of submit workplace operators, requested him: “Why had been there no Fujitsu whistleblowers? Why did nobody come ahead?”

Christou advised the inquiry he took concern with the outline of “tampering” with department accounts. “To start with, I don’t just like the phrase tamper – that may be a pejorative time period,” he advised the listening to.

“Secondly, my understanding is – and I knew nothing about this notably on the time – these alterations had been made along with the Put up Workplace with a view to right varied points, that’s what I noticed popping out of the proof … Why no whistleblowers? You’d must ask potential whistleblowers in Fujitsu. Nobody got here to me and blew any whistles.”

Christou added: “I’m not mitigating that there’s a gross miscarriage of justice and in the event you assume I don’t really feel for the postmasters and subpostmasters, you might be improper, I do,” he stated.

“I really feel aggrieved that what I assumed was a superb system has been put into disrepute, however I’m not chargeable for it. I’ve stated earlier than, the actual concern is the best way the prosecutions had been dealt with and flows of knowledge. Why there have been no whistleblowers and what they might have advised me … I don’t know, he stated.

The primary particular person to come back ahead as a whistleblower was former Fujitsu worker Richard Roll, who gave an interview to the BBC’s Panorama about Horizon in 2015.

Christou stated in his witness assertion that he had had no data of the prosecution of submit workplace operators and stated he had all the time regarded the rollout of the Horizon IT system as one in all Fujitsu’s “main successes” and the Put up Workplace as a “happy buyer”.

Greater than 700 submit workplace operators had been wrongly prosecuted by the Put up Workplace and handed prison convictions between 1999 and 2015 because the Horizon system made it seem that cash was lacking at their branches.

Christou’s ex-colleague Duncan Tait, a former chief govt of Fujitsu Companies Ltd, advised the inquiry that he had stated to Paula Vennells, then chief govt of the Put up Workplace, that the Horizon IT system was like “Fort Knox”. Tait agreed he had made the remark however advised the listening to that this was not about distant entry to the IT system however about a part of Fujitsu’s places of work in Berkshire.

“Opposite to what she says in her letter, my remark was not about distant entry to transaction knowledge, however about bodily entry to the … builders’ space in Bracknell and the cybersecurity of the system,” he stated.

The inquiry continues.