Anyone that works in IT will have worked on projects that failed – I worked on the failed NHS Spine project in the UK and Novopay in NZ to name but two – but this case involves an IT system so bad that innocent people were sent to prison, were falsely convicted or even took their own lives.
Twenty years ago Fujitsu were contracted by the UK Post Office to install a computer system for automating benefits payments, that they called Horizon. The system had serious accounting flaws that resulted in thousands of false fraud accusations being made to sub-postmasters across the country.
A review produced by third party CK Sift as early as 2013 produced clear evidence that at least a couple of dozen of the convictions were unsafe; Post Office Management kept the information secret from MPs and the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, leading to hundreds more false prosecutions. This could well be deemed to be perverting the course of justice. Further the Post Office spent millions on prosecutions and sent legal threats to journalists.
This goes way beyond lousy Management, this is arrogant and corrupt behaviour that needs to be thoroughly investigated and people held to account. Unfortunately we know from the Global Financial Crisis – from which not one person was prosecuted – that the Government, the Law and Business all look after each other. The most likely outcome is that a lot of convictions will be overturned and a “don’t do it again” slap on the wrist be issued to Post Office. And of course nobody’s going to hold Fujitsu to account for their useless system …
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56718036
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