Post Office IT transformation project was ‘set up to fail’, chairman tells inquiry

October 8

The Post Office’s once-in-a-generation project to replace the controversial Horizon system was “set up to fail” and needs to be reset, its chairman has told the public inquiry.

Nigel Railton told the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry that in 2021, when the New Branch IT (NBIT) project was embryonic, two decisions were made that were “fundamentally wrong in hindsight”.

“One was the decision ‘to get off Horizon’, which is different to building a system for the future, and the second was the decision to build in-house,” he said.

Railton said there are many “horror stories” of people trying to build systems in-house, adding: “I believe this was set up to fail in the first place.”

NBIT was first established as a project to replace the Horizon system from Fujitsu, used in thousands of branches. The Horizon system is at the centre of a scandal that saw subpostmasters financially ruined and wrongfully convicted of crimes.

Railton also said the project is too reliant on third parties. During the latest inquiry hearing, he was shown internal Post Office documents that reveal concerns over the reliance on third parties, which could render internal teams unable to take over during the transition to the new system. The documents also warned about the high cost of relying on third parties, comparing it to the NHS being reliant on locum staff. “I think we are too reliant on Accenture,” he said. “This is something we are looking at and thinking how we can do it differently.”

About 80% of staff currently working on the Post Office New Branch IT project are contractors, according to Railton. “When you only have contractors working on projects like this, they are transient and you don’t keep information and skills, and they are generally expensive, which is why we have to reset the whole programme.”

Computer Weekly revealed in May this year that a review by government project management experts at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) rated the project as “currently unachievable”, with budgets ballooning from £180m to £1.1bn and implementation being delayed by as much as five years.

The Post Office announced internally last week that it is reassessing its approach to the Horizon replacement project, and plans further engagement with government and other external experts. Acting CEO Neil Brocklehurst told staff: “We will be moving forward with the installation of new technology into branches over the next 12 months.”

Railton said he was confident the project would be finished in 2028 and wouldn’t cost any more than the current £1.1bn predicted.

He added that he was hoping for sensible negotiations with Fujitsu over a contract extension and hoped to confirm this in the coming weeks. In May, Computer Weekly revealed that problems with NBIT meant Fujitsu was set to receive up to £180m more in taxpayers’ money to support the system for another five years.

During the inquiry hearing, Railton said it had receive about 100 applicants for the advertised IT-savvy Post Office non-executive director position.

The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).

• Also read: What you need to know about the Horizon scandal •

• Also watch: ITV’s documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The real story •

• Also read: Post Office and Fujitsu malevolence and incompetence means huge taxpayers’ bill •

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