Jim Allister has criticised the awarding of a £67m Government contract extension to Fujitsu — the controversial company whose technology was responsible for the Post Office scandal — to help companies in Great Britain deal with the Windsor Framework.
The contract’s extension means Fujitsu will have earned around half a billion pounds due to the Irish Sea border.
The firm was at the heart of the Horizon IT scandal that resulted in more than 700 sub-postmasters being wrongfully prosecuted for theft and false accounting.
The national scandal included a number of post-masters from Northern Ireland being accused of crimes they didn’t commit.
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has now granted a year-long extension to Fujitsu, which developed the faulty software, to run the Trader Support Service.
The contract is for a service that educates firms trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland on post-Brexit red tape, including how to manage customs declarations.
Last January, Fujitsu ruled itself out of bidding for future government contracts due to its role in the Horizon Post Office scandal.
But this extension, worth £66.8m, was approved because it is not a new contract.
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In April last year it was announced that convictions resulting from the Post Office Horizon scandal in Northern Ireland would now be within the scope of legislation introduced to automatically pardon those wrongfully targeted.
The blanket exoneration will automatically quash convictions brought about by the scandal, including 26 from Northern Ireland.
Fujitsu said in January 2024 it would “pause bidding” for government contracts, unless there were “existing customer relationships”, “an agreed need for Fujitsu skills and capability” or the company was “actively engaged in a live procurement”.
However, since then it has been awarded hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money.
North Antrim MP Mr Allister, who has previously raised the Horizon scandal in the Commons, said that following the uncovering of several construction companies’ unethical behaviour at the Grenfell fire inquiry, the Government would remove them from government contracts.
He said the same should now be happening with Fujitsu.
“I have already asked the Government why a similar approach is not being taken to Fujitsu in light of the Post Office scandal, which resulted in at least one suicide,” he said.
“With their dodgy history I am not at all sure that they are the right provider.”
HMRC have defended the contract, saying the extension was needed in order to “ensure a period of stabilisation” while new trading arrangements bed in under the Windsor Framework.
It also promised to run a procurement process to replace Fujitsu in delivering the service from some time this year.
The service was originally launched in January 2020 to help traders navigate the Northern Ireland Protocol, it continued on after that was replaced in 2023 by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework.
To date the contract has cost £443m in public money.
Fujitsu has in the past won nearly £6.8bn in nearly 200 contracts from the public sector, including 11 for HMRC to the value of over £1bn, and 12 contracts with the Ministry of Defence for £582m.
Mr Allister said “the more fundamental point” is that the multi-million spend was “the cost of the British Government surrendering to Brussels”.
“Such a colossal bill for trading within our own country is entirely unnecessary and something which should not be tolerated by a self-respecting sovereign nation,” he said.
“It is the cost not of Brexit but the denial of Brexit given that Northern Ireland has been left behind in the EU’s customs union and single market while the rest of the UK left,” Mr Allister added.
Sir Keir Starmer will hold a key meeting with the 27 EU leaders and other top Brussels officials next week, days after the fifth anniversary of Britain’s official exit from the EU.
An HMRC spokesperson said in relation to the contract: “This service has provided vital support for almost 60,000 traders moving goods under the Windsor Framework, enabling them to follow the correct processes without the need to purchase specialist software, saving them significant time and money.
“It’s critical this support continues while the new customs arrangements under the Windsor Framework are implemented.”
A Fujitsu spokesperson said: “We are working with the UK Government to ensure we adhere to the voluntary restrictions we put in place regarding bidding for new contracts while the Post Office inquiry is ongoing.
“Based on the findings of the Inquiry, we will work with government on the appropriate actions, including contribution to compensation.
“We continue to offer our deepest apologies to the sub-postmasters and their families.”