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muriel_volestrangler

(101,318 posts)
Tue Feb 20, 2024, 07:40 AM Feb 20

Cameron government knew Post Office ditched Horizon IT investigation

The documents show how the secret 2016 investigation - looking into Fujitsu's use of remote access from 1999 onwards - had come out of a review by former top Treasury lawyer Jonathan Swift QC. The Swift review had been ordered by the government, with approval from then-business secretary Sajid Javid.
...
Mr Swift had found a briefing for the Post Office board from an earlier review in 2014, carried out by auditors from Deloitte and codenamed Project Zebra, detailing how Fujitsu could change branch accounts.
...
Ministers, including Mr Javid, were told this new work was under way to "address suggestions that branch accounts might have been remotely altered without complainants' knowledge".

But in June 2016, when sub-postmasters launched their legal action, the government was told through Post Office minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe that the investigation had been scrapped on "very strong advice" from the senior barrister representing them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68146054

So the Post Office board knew in 2014 that Fujitsu could change accounts. They sat on that information. When the Tory government (after years of reports by Computing Weekly and Private Eye) finally ordered an investigation, it found out, and realised it was important. But when the chance of losing in court appeared, they shut it down. To cover their arses, and screw the truth, or justice.
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