Fujitsu tops half a billion in govt contracts post-Horizon • The Register

Fujitsu has been awarded round £510 million ($682 million) in UK public sector contracts since a TV dramatization of the Horizon Submit Workplace scandal – together with a latest £220 million ($294 million) cope with the UK tax collector, awarded with out competitors.

For the reason that dramatization was broadcast, Fujitsu CEO Takahito Tokita, CFO Takeshi Isobe, and head of UK and Europe Paul Patterson have all apologized for the corporate’s position within the scandal, which noticed a whole bunch of Submit Workplace department managers convicted of theft and fraud when pc errors had been in charge.

Within the first quantity of a report from the general public inquiry into the scandal, the main decide concluded that 13 department staff dedicated suicide throughout the prosecutions, likely on account of their remedy by the Submit Workplace.

The Submit Workplace started rolling out the legacy Horizon IT system for accounting in 1999, together with two subsequent upgrades. The EPOS and back-end finance system was first carried out by ICL, a UK tech agency majority-owned by Fujitsu within the Nineteen Nineties and absolutely acquired in 1998. From 1999 till 2015, round 736 subpostmasters had been wrongfully prosecuted and convicted over Horizon errors, devastating lives within the course of.

In January 2024, Patterson confirmed an earlier dedication made to Gareth Rhys-Williams, the federal government’s chief industrial officer, that Fujitsu would pause bidding for work with new authorities clients till the inquiry had reported, following an outcry from the general public and MPs. This was later reaffirmed by Dave Riley, head of UK public sector, in a letter [PDF] to the Cupboard Workplace. He mentioned Fujitsu would solely proceed bidding in “re-procurement workout routines by current authorities clients” and in agreeing to the extension of current contracts.

Analysis from authorities spending analyst Tussell has discovered that since ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Submit Workplace aired in early January 2024, Fujitsu has received £510 million in contracts from the UK public sector.

The most important and most up-to-date resulted from His Majesty’s Income & Customs (HMRC) awarding Fujitsu a £220.3 million deal for datacenter and venture companies, with out competitors, in June.

HMRC mentioned: “A change to a distinct contractor can’t be made for these companies as a result of the HMRC functions involved are hosted and/or operated by [Fujitsu on its] infrastructure in [its] datacenters with connectivity supplied by Fujitsu. It might not be doable for an additional contractor to take over or present these companies utilizing [Fujitsu’s] infrastructure and internet hosting earlier than they’re migrated to HMRC’s new substitute infrastructure.”

In June, HMRC launched a tendering course of that would lead to contracts value as much as £417 million ($560 million) for hyperscaler companies to assist it depart Fujitsu’s datacenters.

Different notable Fujitsu wins embrace one with a brand new authorities buyer, Northern Ireland’s Department of Finance, which awarded a £125 million ($167 million) deal to construct Northern Eire’s new land registry system. The Northern Eire authorities later confirmed it didn’t ask Fujitsu to proceed bidding for the work.

In Parliament, MPs and friends have questioned the federal government’s resolution to proceed accepting bids for large-scale IT contracts from Fujitsu, regardless of the Japanese provider’s earlier pledge to cease bidding. ®