All generalities, nothing specific to the PO scandal. One key factor was the PO/Fujitso investigators not understanding Horizon's complexities and the many likely failure modes. Investigators should have requested a deep dive from Fujitsu. Software systems for accounting are not simple and can have many flaws. Investigators then need to understand any expert assessments which in itself could be subjective and not the whole story (see the compelling evdence given by Gareth Jenkins). It was also easy to believe that the subpostmasters or their employees were stealing given the amount of cash floating around. Finally, should have also touched on how on earth these investigators were appointed - none came out of the enquiry with any credibility.
Well they werent regulated because they are government owned they were exempt which is the problem. They identified all these fraud cases but didnt investigate where this fraudulent money went beyond "they stole it" or attempt to refund the supposed defrauded customers at all(all the pensioner victims of the subpostmasters they used as emotive victims). If they had they would have realised there was no money to refund and it was a software problem. They also broke accountancy rules by adjusting SPM accounts invisibly without using journal adjustments unknown to the SPMs . There are bugs in all IT systems it is how you deal with them that matters in a compliant honest and moral way.
All generalities, nothing specific to the PO scandal. One key factor was the PO/Fujitso investigators not understanding Horizon's complexities and the many likely failure modes. Investigators should have requested a deep dive from Fujitsu. Software systems for accounting are not simple and can have many flaws. Investigators then need to understand any expert assessments which in itself could be subjective and not the whole story (see the compelling evdence given by Gareth Jenkins). It was also easy to believe that the subpostmasters or their employees were stealing given the amount of cash floating around. Finally, should have also touched on how on earth these investigators were appointed - none came out of the enquiry with any credibility.
Well they werent regulated because they are government owned they were exempt which is the problem. They identified all these fraud cases but didnt investigate where this fraudulent money went beyond "they stole it" or attempt to refund the supposed defrauded customers at all(all the pensioner victims of the subpostmasters they used as emotive victims). If they had they would have realised there was no money to refund and it was a software problem. They also broke accountancy rules by adjusting SPM accounts invisibly without using journal adjustments unknown to the SPMs . There are bugs in all IT systems it is how you deal with them that matters in a compliant honest and moral way.
Reported to police in 1999 following embarrassed counsel confession to perverting justice on Sept 7th 1998