"Considerable risk" if Post Office replaced Horizon system, says chairman

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Despite all its faults, the Post Office would incure considerable risk if it replaced the Horizon computer system that thousands of subpostmasters use to run their businesses, according to the chairman of the Post Office.

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According to an article in the latest edition of Sub Postmaster, the official journal of the National Federation of Subpostmasters, when addressing concerns over the system voiced by subpostmasters and calls for a replacement system, Post Office chairman Tim Parker said Horizon is not a bad system and replacing it would bring considerable risks.

According to the journal, he said: Ive been involved in some major IT transformation projects, and the amount of c**k-ups, delays and problems we came across dont bear thinking about.

I think that, for all its faults, Horizon is not a bad system at all and wed incur considerable risks if we looked to replace it.

The Horizon computer system is at the centre of a long dispute between the Post Office and subposmasters.

In 2009, Computer Weekly revealed the stories of subpostmasters who had received heavy fines and even jail terms for alleged false accounting, which they blamed on the Horizon accounting system. The Post Office denies these claims.

Thousands of Post Offices use the IT system, developed by ICL/Fujitsu Services, for their accounts.

Group action

There is currently a group action against the Post Office where subpostmasters supported by The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JSFA) seek justice and compensation for what they claim are wrongful prosecutions and fines.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is also reviewing prosecutions for account shortfalls, which subpostmasters blamed on Horizon.

In response to previous Computer Weekly articles, the Post Office said: It remains the case that more than three years of investigations have not identified any transaction caused by a technical fault in Horizon, which resulted in a postmaster wrongly being held responsible for a loss.

As recently as May 2016, the Post Office apologised to subpostmasters when branches all over the UK were unable to operate for an hour and a half on 9 May 2016. This was the result of a problem with the Horizon computer system. Problems such as this can cause account shortfalls, according to campaigners.

For example, in November 2015, the Communication Workers Union subpostmasters branch CWU said in a case documented by investigators that a core branch transferred cash to an outreach branch and Horizon reduced the accounts of the core by the amount transferred.

The outreach branch transferred in the amount sent and Horizon accepted the correct amount. However, Horizon did this four times, causing a loss of three times the actual amount sent. The discrepancy was for money that did not exist.

In relation to this, Post Office IT supportsent an email to a member of the postmasters branch of the CWU revealing the flaw. The email said Post Office IT supportplanned to fix the glitch with a code change.

Reports into Horizon dispute

The Horizon dispute has moved beyond the computer system itself and is more about how The Post Office dealt with the claims of subpostmasters that the losses they incurred were down to the system rather than misaccounting or theft.

An independent report into the Horizon system and individual subpostmaster cases by forensic investigation company Second Sight, which was commissioned by the Post Office and published in April 2015, said the Post Office was too quick to go to court in some cases of subpostmaster account shortfalls.

As a result of our investigations, we have established that Post Offices investigators have, in many cases, failed to identify the underlying root cause of shortfalls prior to the initiation of civil recovery action or criminal proceedings, said Second Sight.

But in its own 83-page report, the Post Office said the Second Sight findings were wrong.

Alan Bates, who set up the Justice for subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) pressure group, said: This case is about the failure of the Post Office to identify the problems with the system and the fact that they held subpostmasters responsible for shortfalls.

He also claimed the Post Office has failed to invest in the system to make life easier for subpostmasters.

Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450297820/Considerable-risk-if-Post-Office-replaced-Horizon-system-says-chairman