The Post Office Horizon IT System Investigation: A Hidden Truth

The Post Office Horizon IT system, a critical component of the Post Office’s operations, has been the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy for over a decade. The system, developed and maintained by Fujitsu, has been accused of causing financial losses for sub-postmasters, leading to hundreds of wrongful prosecutions and imprisonments. In this article, we delve into the intricacies of the Post Office Horizon IT system investigation, revealing the hidden truths that have come to light.

The investigation into the Post Office Horizon IT system began in earnest in 2014, with the initiation of Project Zebra, a desktop review commissioned by the Post Office board. The review, carried out by auditors from Deloitte, aimed to provide comfort to the Post Office and external stakeholders regarding the Horizon system’s functioning and objectives. However, the unredacted documents obtained by the BBC reveal that the review uncovered significant concerns about the system’s capabilities.

Deloitte discovered that Fujitsu staff, with the right database access privileges, could use fake digital signatures or keys to delete, create, or amend data on customer purchases that had been electronically signed by sub-postmasters. The staff could then re-sign the transactions with a fake key, effectively altering the cash balances in Post Office branch accounts without the sub-postmasters’ knowledge. Additionally, Fujitsu staff could correct errors using an emergency process known as a ‘balancing transaction,’ which did not require positive acceptance or approval by the sub-postmaster.

Despite these findings, the Post Office failed to disclose the information to investigating accountants, Second Sight, who had been tasked with looking into sub-postmasters’ claims. Instead, the Post Office continued to claim that it was impossible for remote tinkering by Fujitsu to alter cash balances in Post Office branch accounts. This denial persisted until 2015, when the BBC aired a Panorama expose of the scandal.

Following the Panorama broadcast, Post Office minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe wrote to the incoming chairman, Tim Parker, asking him to give the concerns about possible miscarriages of justice his earliest attention and take any necessary action. Business Secretary Sajid Javid approved the letter. In response, Parker commissioned a review of the Horizon system and various claims that sub-postmasters had been wrongly prosecuted as a result of faults in the system.

The Swift review, led by Jonathan Swift QC and barrister Christopher Knight, was initiated in February 2016. The review noted that the Post Office had always known about the balancing transaction capability and that it may be obliged by law to show the documents to postmasters seeking to overturn their convictions. In response to the Swift review’s recommendations, Deloitte was asked to return to the Post Office to carry out a full independent review of Horizon.

The mammoth and expensive task involved trawling back through all the transactions since Horizon began operating, a process anticipated to take three months. In a letter of 4 March 2016, Post Office chair Tim Parker wrote to Baroness Neville-Rolfe about the Swift review’s findings and recommendations, including the follow-up work by Deloitte. He stated that it would address suggestions that branch accounts might have been remotely altered without complainants’ knowledge and review security controls governing access to the digitally sealed electronic audit store of branch accounts.

However, the letter did not explicitly mention Project Zebra or Deloitte’s earlier findings about how branch accounts could be remotely altered. In April 2016, the Post Office notified the government that the sub-postmasters had begun their group legal action against the Post Office.

The Post Office Horizon IT system investigation has shed light on a complex web of deceit and misinformation. The revelations have prompted accusations that the Post Office may have broken the law and that the government did nothing to prevent it. The situation has left hundreds of sub-postmasters, like Senopathy Narenthiran, feeling betrayed and seeking justice. The ongoing legal action against the Post Office continues to unfold, with the truth about the Horizon IT system and its impact on sub-postmasters yet to be fully revealed.

In conclusion, the Post Office Horizon IT system investigation has uncovered a hidden truth of remote manipulation of branch accounts, which the Post Office had denied for years. The investigation began with Project Zebra in 2014, followed by the Swift review in 2016, and Deloitte’s follow-up work. The findings of these investigations were not disclosed to sub-postmasters, and the Post Office continued to claim that it was impossible for remote tinkering to alter cash balances. The situation has left hundreds of sub-postmasters seeking justice and the truth about the Horizon IT system’s impact on their lives. The ongoing legal action against the Post Office continues to unfold, with the full truth yet to be revealed.