January 10, 2024 | Posted in News
Bristol City Council has defended a decision to pay £25 million to Fujitsu Services, the IT company at the centre of the Horizon Post Office scandal, in a deal that sees it become the council’s official ‘digital strategic partner’.
Council chiefs signed the deal almost a year ago as part of its ‘Bristol Digital Strategy 2022-2027’, but did not announce it or issue any kind of news release, despite the £25 million price tag.
Fujitsu Services has been heavily criticised by those involved in the Post Office scandal – the details of which are currently shocking the nation through an ITV drama series – including local Labour MP Darren Jones.
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The only public announcement of the £25m deal came in a contract notice published by the council in February last year, and the ‘digital strategic partnership’ arrangement is understood to have begun in January 2023 and will last for five years. The council said at the time the ‘digital strategic partner’ contract would create a ‘sole supplier’ for all of Bristol City Council ‘s computer systems, and this would ‘bring about a step change in the council’s ability to meet its digital transformation ambitions for Bristol’.
“This new long-term partnership will combine the capacity, knowledge and expertise that exists within the council, with the capabilities and reach of a private sector partner to significantly accelerate the pace of delivery of the council’s digital transformation ambitions, its associated Digital Transformation Programme, and its wider digital ambitions,” the contract notice added.
“It will also support us in future proofing our organisation and we will retain full decision ownership and cost control through a no-commitment, non-exclusive contract,” the document said.
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Fujitsu and the Post Office scandal
Fujitsu Services was the company that created and installed the Horizon accounting systems in all Post Offices more than 20 years ago. As the recent ITV drama ‘Mr Bates vs the Post Office’ showed, there were bugs in the system that artificially created mismatches between the amount of money individual postmasters were taking and what was recorded by the computer system. Post Office Ltd aggressively pursued and fired thousands of postmasters and postmistresses for apparent shortfalls, often up to tens of thousands of pounds, accusing them of theft and fraud. This often left them homeless, jobless and bankrupt. Hundreds were also prosecuted, some were jailed and some committed suicide.
Fujitsu’s role in the scandal was also highlighted by the drama, and the accompanying documentary. The firm consistently denied there was any problems with its software and computer systems, and it took a whistleblower to come forward more than a decade later to explain how the firm knew about the issues but had denied them for so long.
Bristol North West MP Mr Jones, as chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade committee, said he has long tried to bring Fujitsu bosses to parliament to question them about the firm’s involvement in the scandal. Back in 2020, he had asked them how they responded to the criticism from the judge in the ‘Mr Bates v the Post Office’ court case, that they had ‘given a very one-sided picture which was to omit any reference to important contemporaneous documents that criticise or demonstrate any deficiencies with Horizon’.
Mr Jones said the hearing at which he and his committee would have grilled Fujitsu bosses about the scandal had been cancelled by the Covid pandemic in 2020 and still hasn’t happened, although a full public inquiry is now under way.
The Bristol MP shared the company’s reply in 2020 on Twitter /X this week, which acknowledged there were faults in the Horizon system. “Whilst Fujitsu employees gave evidence, it was the Post Office who determined all aspects of its case including the choice of witnesses, the nature of their evidence and the associated documents. Nonetheless, we take Mr Justice Fraser’s criticisms extremely seriously and we have no stopped the provision of any new witness evidence to the Post Office,” the reply stated.
What Bristol City Council said
Bristol Live asked council chiefs why the council had chosen Fujitsu to be its ‘strategic digital partner’, when the firm’s role in the Post Office Horizon scandal was already well known in 2023, and had been the subject of several high profile court cases and multi-million pound compensation deals.
Bristol Live also asked why the city council had not – apart from the contract’s legal notice published online – announced the £25m deal publicly. In a statement, a spokesperson for the council said: “As a Digital Strategic Partner, Fujitsu will enable the council to achieve our Digital Strategy 2022-27, its associated Digital Transformation Programme, and our wider digital ambition.
“Government sets the rules and policies for public sector procurement. The council are required to follow these by law. The contract was awarded in line with government procurement processes and guidance under a Framework where 38 other companies also had the opportunity to bid.
“Fujitsu was a clear winner in a fair and rigorous procurement process, and we have every confidence in our partnership delivering on its aims. As with any major contract, we undertake regular performance monitoring and assurance activities to make sure it delivers for Bristol,” she added.
The contract notice on the Government website listed the contract as being valued at £25 million, but the council told Bristol Live that the ‘only commitment’ to council funds was £188,000 a year for five years. The council spokesperson also highlighted the passage of the Digital Strategy, and the partnership deal with Fujitsu through a series of council meetings during 2023, which saw the final decision endorsed by the council’s cabinet in September 2023, and then go to the council’s audit committee and scrutiny committee in the following month.