A former long-serving Put up Workplace government, who’s campaigning for customers of a second controversial Put up Workplace IT system, has turned down his former employer’s supply to satisfy to debate the controversial Seize system.
The Put up Workplace is presently investigating claims that, just like the Horizon system, Seize led to the prosecution and unfair dismissal of former subpostmasters.
The Seize system was launched in 1993. Described as a glorified spreadsheet, it enabled subpostmasters to automate accounting. In contrast to the Horizon system, it was not a fancy core system rolled out throughout the Put up Workplace department community, however standalone software program on a person person’s pc. However it did have issues, and because the broadcasting of ITVs dramatisation of the Put up Workplace scandal, former customers have come ahead with traumatic tales of unexplained shortfalls, prosecution and monetary spoil.
Rupert Lloyd Thomas, who spent 27 years on the Put up Workplace in varied senior roles, together with in IT, from the early Seventies, stated the Put up Workplace has “reached out” to him since he started investigating the Seize system and its faults.
However Lloyd Thomas stated he wouldn’t work with the organisation, as a result of a scarcity of belief. “There are folks which can be tainted by the Put up Workplace nonetheless working there and I gained’t work with them as a result of they’re untrustworthy,” he stated. “I watched the inquiry and there are many dangerous seeds there.”
Customers of the Seize system suffered the identical destiny as many victims of the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal – they have been blamed for unexplained accounting shortfalls, which they imagine have been right down to pc errors, and a few have been prosecuted.
In the meantime, utilizing floppy disks found by Laptop Weekly, Thomas’s personal investigation into Seize errors has revealed extra issues with the software program.
Lloyd Thomas lately unearthed a Seize troubleshooting information from the early Nineties, which reveals that energy cuts may corrupt knowledge and trigger inaccurate accounts.
The information describes the issue as “corrupt knowledge – ie summaries not printing appropriate variety of transactions or worth proven on display” or “the full worth proven on the backside of the display differs from variety of transactions proven above”.
It states the trigger as “switching off the pc or an influence minimize (even when just for a couple of seconds) while within the Seize program”.
Lloyd Thomas is looking for former subpostmasters to assist him and others examine additional, by the provision of additional disks. He known as for model C50, particularly, or any variations for the London area, which was completely different to the Provincial variations used outdoors London.
A Put up Workplace spokesperson stated: “We proceed to actively examine quite a lot of strains of inquiry regarding Seize, and all through this, we’ve got frequently saved the Division for Enterprise and Commerce and Kevan Jones MP updated with our findings. We’ve now shared a suggestion with the division about what ought to occur subsequent and hope to offer additional data with previous customers of Seize as quickly as we’re capable of.”
The federal government lately agreed to nominate an unbiased IT professional to look at the Seize system, which the Put up Workplace seems to know little about.
Forensic IT professional Jason Coyne, who performed a key function in exposing flaws within the Horizon system, stated he could be ready to tackle the job. Posting on X, previously Twitter, following the federal government’s announcement, he wrote: “Utilizing the identical sturdy IT forensic investigation processes utilized in 2003 while wanting on the Cleveleys Put up Workplace and the 2017-2019 Horizon investigation recommended by choose Fraser, I might be glad to tackle the Put up Workplace Seize investigation, given applicable directions.”
The Put up Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Laptop Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of accounting software program (see timeline of Laptop Weekly articles concerning the scandal under).
• Additionally learn: What it’s good to know concerning the Horizon scandal •
• Additionally watch: ITV’s documentary – Mr Bates vs The Put up Workplace: The actual story •
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25249710/246961_Costa_Rica_Renewables_1_IVargas.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Need to restore a forest? Give it again to Indigenous peoples who name it residence")
