Fujitsu under fire for bidding on UK public sector deals • The Register

The coordinator of a parliamentary marketing campaign to finish Fujitsu’s grip on UK authorities contracting within the wake of the Submit Workplace Horizon scandal has slammed the Japanese vendor’s lack of transparency over its promise to not bid for brand spanking new authorities work.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones is collectively main a gaggle of 76 parliamentarians who’ve written an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for pressing motion on Fujitsu’s continued eligibility for presidency contracts.

In January 2024, Fujitsu emailed the UK authorities’s business arm to verify the corporate would pause bidding for public sector initiatives after the Submit Workplace Horizon scandal got here to wider public consideration by way of a TV dramatization.

Paul Patterson, the director of Fujitsu Companies Ltd, emailed the government on January 24 last year [PDF] to make clear that till an inquiry into the scandal was full, there was “no limitation or caveat on our intention to pause bidding for work with new Authorities clients.”

He mentioned it will “solely” proceed bidding for public sector work if a brand new buyer requested it to take action, or with present clients “for instance a contract extension or for comparable work already undertaken by Fujitsu for that buyer,” or “for brand spanking new alternatives with present clients, the place we have now assessed and understood there to be a necessity [for] Fujitsu abilities and functionality.”

But, in April this yr, Fujitsu won a £125 million contract to build Northern Ireland’s new land registry system, a contract for which it was bidding on the time Patterson wrote to the federal government. NI’s Division of Finance is a brand new buyer, and the NI government has confirmed it did not ask Fujitsu to continue bidding.

Responding to the truth that Patterson didn’t declare the continuing Northern Eire bid when he made his dedication to the federal government, Lord Clement-Jones instructed The Register Fujitsu’s habits was “scandalous.”

Commending The Reg for revealing the Japanese vendor’s bidding for presidency work after the Horizon scandal broke, Lord Clement-Jones mentioned: “Fujitsu promised it will stop bidding for these contracts, then they have been awarded a £125 million contract to construct Northern Eire’s new land registry system.”

The Reg has provided Fujitsu the chance to reply. A spokesperson beforehand claimed: “Fujitsu was named most popular bidder for this contract in 2023, earlier than the voluntary restrictions got here into place.”

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 totally acquired in 1998. From 1999 till 2015, round 736 subpostmasters have been wrongfully prosecuted and convicted over Horizon errors, devastating lives within the course of.

A report submitted by the unbiased public inquiry into the pc scandal, which launched in 2021, discovered that Fujitsu and ICL knew or should have known about the defects causing errors in the Horizon system that contributed to the wrongful prosecution of lots of of department staff, 13 of whom dedicated suicide.

On the time, a Fujitsu Companies Ltd spokesperson welcomed the primary quantity of the inquiry’s report. “We have now apologized for, and deeply remorse, our function in subpostmasters’ struggling, and we want to reiterate that apology in the present day. We hope for a swift decision that ensures a simply end result for the victims,” they mentioned.

Together with Lord Clement-Jones, the group of 76 MPs and Lords writing to the Prime Minister embrace Labour MP Kate Osborne, Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, and Labour peer Baroness Ritchie.

Their letter mentioned Fujitsu additionally continues re-tender negotiations with HMRC for the Dealer Help Service (TSS), a profitable £370 million contract to assist post-Brexit buying and selling preparations between Nice Britain and Northern Eire.

“It’s unclear what due diligence safeguards are in place to forestall corporations with a file of serious failures from persevering with to safe main public contracts. This case raises severe questions concerning the requirements of equity, accountability, and due diligence guiding public procurement on this nation,” the letter mentioned.

The parliamentarians argue that persevering with to award lots of of thousands and thousands of kilos in work to Fujitsu erodes public belief in authorities service. “Entrusting extra vital infrastructure to Fujitsu – an organization universally acknowledged to have dedicated a severe disservice – solely worsens this disaster of confidence,” the letter mentioned.

The parliamentarians mentioned the federal government ought to institute a direct assessment of Fujitsu’s eligibility to bid for vital public providers, together with its present re-tender for the Dealer Help Service, “in mild of its conduct and the reputational danger it poses to HM Authorities.”

They said that any authorities provider concerned in systemic failures, reminiscent of Fujitsu, ought to show significant remediation and cooperation with compensation processes as a situation of continued business engagement.

Fujitsu has acknowledged an ethical obligation to compensate the victims of the Submit Workplace Horizon scandal. In its closing submission to the Horizon inquiry, Fujitsu said it would engage with the government on its contribution to compensation prices. “The timing of this engagement will start as soon as this inquiry has printed its findings,” it mentioned.

However of their letter, the parliamentarians mentioned: “This isn’t solely about cash. It’s about justice, accountability, and whether or not it’s morally acceptable for Fujitsu to proceed to revenue from the general public purse. The Submit Workplace Horizon scandal destroyed lives. That injustice should not be compounded by the continued awarding of profitable authorities contracts to Fujitsu.”

A authorities spokesperson mentioned: “We have now been clear that these accountable for the Horizon scandal have to be held to account. Fujitsu has dedicated to withdraw from bidding for contracts with new Authorities clients till the Submit Workplace Inquiry concludes. We is not going to hesitate to take motion, the place acceptable, based mostly on the ultimate findings.” ®