Fujitsu’s grip on HMRC loosening however luggage of taxpayer money nonetheless to be made
HM Income & Customs (HMRC) has signed off two contracts value a complete of £280m with Fujitsu as the federal government division makes “bridging” preparations whereas it decouples from Fujitsu datacentres and self-assessment system internet hosting.
A £220m cope with Fujitsu might be in place till 2028, as HMRC strikes to a hyperscale cloud supplier to handle the migration from the controversial Japanese provider’s datacentres and supply cloud internet hosting going ahead. The Fujitsu bridging contract will run alongside the £500m contract with the chosen hyperscaler.
In the meantime, the division has confirmed it’ll pay Fujitsu £60m to host its Pc Surroundings for Self-Evaluation (CESA) service for an additional three years. As revealed by Pc Weekly in February, HMRC was set to increase this, the place Fujitsu was the incumbent.
On the datacentre extension, the federal government tender discover mentioned: “The authority has a requirement for a bridging contract to make sure continuity of important companies as we migrate to new preparations.”
HMRC additionally described the CESA extension as a “bridging” contract, revealing its intention to maneuver away from Fujitsu, with “new preparations” deliberate. “HMRC requires the safe and uninterrupted supply of assist to the appliance and considers the award of the brand new contract to be the one possibility for guaranteeing supply of CESA till the migration to new preparations,” mentioned the tender.
After the nationwide outrage sparked by ITV’s drama in regards to the Submit Workplace scandal, Fujitsu, which equipped the defective software program on the centre of the scandal, mentioned it could pause bidding for profitable authorities contracts.
However the bidding pause was described as a “hole” gesture by peer and long-time campaigner for subpostmasters Kevan Jones, with Fujitsu persevering with to money in on authorities work, utilizing workarounds.
The Submit Workplace scandal noticed lots of of subpostmasters wrongfully prosecuted on account of unexplained account shortfalls that had been attributable to errors in Fujitsu’s Horizon system. Hundreds misplaced their livelihoods and had their lives turned the other way up after repaying the unexplained losses. Round 900 had been wrongfully convicted of economic crimes, and lots of had been jailed in consequence. It’s described because the widest miscarriage of justice in UK historical past.
HMRC is commonly described as Fujitsu’s UK public sector “money cow”, with enormous contracts concerned.
Final month, when requested about Fujitsu’s work for HMRC, peer James Arbuthnot, a campaigner for justice for subpostmasters for a decade and a half, mentioned: “Why on earth is the federal government undermining its personal bargaining place with Fujitsu, an organization that has but to pay a penny in direction of the carnage it helped trigger within the Submit Workplace?”
However “a sluggish cancellation” of Fujitsu by the federal government has begun, in keeping with sources.
Fujitsu has lastly agreed to barter its contribution in direction of the large prices of the scandal. In March, the federal government introduced there was an settlement to start talks on compensation. Fujitsu has beforehand acknowledged it could wait till the general public inquiry’s conclusion earlier than committing to talks. The general public inquiry has completed its public hearings, and there’s no date for the publication of the report from chair Wynn Williams.
Pc Weekly first uncovered the scandal in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of Horizon accounting software program, which led to essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see beneath timeline of Pc Weekly articles in regards to the scandal since 2009).
