Fujitsu UK has paid its top executives over £26m in the last 25 years, during the period of the controversial Horizon contract with the Post Office. The company also paid over £11m to former directors for loss of office during this time, according to a BBC analysis of accounts. The highest-paid director earned £2.5m during Duncan Tait’s tenure as UK boss. Fujitsu has since apologised to sub-postmasters and pledged to contribute to compensation.
The Post Office scandal centred around a flawed computer system, Horizon, which was developed by a British computer company called ICL, later renamed Fujitsu in 2002. The system generated unexplained errors, which were unfairly blamed on sub-postmasters, leading to the prosecution of more than 900 individuals.
Fujitsu’s accounts do not list the salaries of its UK bosses. However, its two European subsidiaries, Fujitsu Services Ltd (FSL) and Fujitsu Services Holdings Ltd (FSHL), do report the pay packages of their highest-paid director. These accounts reveal that directors received millions while sub-postmasters were wrongly pursued for debts based on false data from the flawed Horizon system.
Fujitsu currently holds £3.4bn of contracts with the Treasury, HMRC, the Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority, according to research from the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee. The company has stated it will not bid for public sector contracts while the statutory inquiry into the scandal, led by Sir Wyn Williams, is ongoing.
Several high-ranking executives at Fujitsu, including Keith Todd, Richard Christou, David Courtley, and Duncan Tait, have been implicated in the scandal and are expected to give evidence in the ongoing Horizon Inquiry. The current chief executive, Paul Patterson, has admitted to “bugs, errors and defects” with the Horizon system from its inception and has apologised for Fujitsu’s role in the scandal.
