The Post Office messaging technique was designed to reassure workers that the Horizon accounting system was strong after Computer Weekly first revealed issues in 2009
By
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Karl Flinders,
Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA
Published: 28 Feb 2023 17:12
Senior Post Office executives told workers as a part of its inner messaging to not reveal issues attributable to its Horizon IT system, on account of issues the organisation would face critical enterprise and authorized difficulties.
During the most recent public inquiry listening to into the Post Office Horizon scandal, Shaun Turner, a former government working within the Post Office National Business Support Centre (NBSC), which supported subpostmasters utilizing the controversial accounting system, stated he was conscious “as a general theme” of issues within the organisation that if the issues have been identified it might trigger a insecurity in Horizon.
Turner stated he shaped this opinion “largely from the messaging that was coming out of the business, particularly in the post-2009 period, around the robust nature of the Horizon system, which led to particular sensitivities around any perceived issues with the system.” In 2009, Computer Weekly revealed its investigation into the issues skilled by seven subpostmasters that have been utilizing Horizon.
“From my recollection the Computer Weekly article and the early days of the [campaign group] Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance were certainly things that were mentioned in the business and where messaging was coming out to internal staff, like myself, around the robust nature of Horizon.”
He stated he doesn’t bear in mind particularly the place the messages have been coming from, however that they have been from the highest of the organisation: “My impression was that messaging was coming from senior leadership. I imagine that messaging was coming from board level down.”
Asked whether or not this got here from as excessive as CEO, he stated it was his impression that it did, as a result of it was a critical concern throughout the enterprise.
Turner told the inquiry that he was “certainly” told there have been issues that particulars of bugs might influence ongoing authorized circumstances.
Also dealing with questions within the public inquiry was Gary Blackburn, former staff lead on the Post Office NBSC. He stated that every one members of the NBSC have been knowledgeable about Computer Weekly’s 2009 article regarding Horizon issues: “I think it was brought to our attention as staff members.”
“I believe that we were [then] reassured that Horizon was fit for purpose,” he stated.
Blackburn agreed with Turner that the supportive messages have been coming from board stage. During the listening to, Blackburn was requested how he thought his seniors would have reacted if he had challenged the Post Office when it blamed subpostmasters for unexplained accounting shortfalls.
“I think the fact that I didn’t probably gives you your answer,” he stated. “[The Post Office is] a highly politicised organisation, very hierarchical. I would have been seen as stepping out of line with the message and I can’t imagine that would have been good for my career. So I am sure at that point in time, which is obviously a hindsight reflection, I obviously on occasions chose to unconsciously protect myself.”
The statutory inquiry is in search of to determine what triggered a scandal sometimes called the widest miscarriage of justice in UK historical past, which noticed lives ruined as subpostmasters have been blamed and punished for unexplained accounting shortfalls attributable to errors within the Post Office’s Horizon pc system. The Post Office denied there have been any issues with the Horizon system, every time challenged, till a High Court judgement in 2019 proved there have been errors that would trigger unexplained losses.
Over 80 wrongfully prosecuted former subpostmasters have to this point had convictions overturned.
An instance of the messaging to workers, coming from the highest of the Post Office, was revealed to the inquiry.
After the introduction of a brand new model, often known as Horizon Online – which changed the legacy Horizon in 2010 – a technical downside described by Post Office because the “receipts and payments mismatch issue,” was being skilled in about 40 branches. A Post Office memo to workers concerned with Horizon stated that affected branches appeared to have balanced their accounts, however in reality they may have a loss or achieve. It additionally stated its personal accounting system might be out of sync with what was recorded on the department.
“If widely known [the problems] could cause a loss in confidence in the Horizon system by branches,” the Post Office stated within the inner memo.
The memo additionally stated there may very well be a “potential impact upon ongoing legal cases where branches are disputing the integrity of Horizon data” and that “it could provide branches with ammunition to blame Horizon for future discrepancies”. At the time, the Post Office told subpostmasters who had unexplained losses that they may not be attributable to errors within the Horizon system.
The memo stated: “Discrepancies showing at the Horizon counter disappear when the branch follows certain process steps but will still show within the back-end branch account. This is currently impacting circa 40 branches, since migration onto Horizon Online with an overall cash value of circa £20,000 loss. This issue will only occur if a branch cancels the completion of the trading period, but within the same session continues to roll into a new balance period… At this time, we have not communicated with branches affected and we do not believe they are exploiting this bug intentionally.”
The inquiry additionally heard about Post Office efforts to maintain particulars of a identified Horizon error, known as the Calendar Square bug, out of the palms of the authorized representatives of subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was in a courtroom battle over unexplained losses
An electronic mail in December 2006, despatched from a Post Office government concerned in dispute decision to an government from Horizon provider Fujitsu, was marked “Calendar Square: URGENT.”
The electronic mail learn: “Our legal team at the court will be doing their best to persuade the court not to allow [Lee] Castleton to call this evidence because it is filed late and does not relate to the problems at his branch. If they are successful there will be no need to progress further with these investigations, but as Castleton is a litigant in person it is common for judges to be sympathetic and may allow him to rely on this evidence. If so you will have to pull out all the stops to investigate what, if anything, went wrong at these branches and why we can distinguish them from Mr Castleton at [his branch].”
Castleton all the time stated the losses in his accounts have been attributable to pc errors, however on the time he had no means of proving this. Post Office witnesses in his courtroom case stated there was no proof of any downside with the system and that they have been unable to establish any foundation upon which the Horizon system might have triggered Castleton’s losses. The Post Office spent about £300,000 on authorized prices to defeat Castleton in courtroom to get better the shortfall. He was subsequently made bankrupt.
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…. to be continued
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