A former Post Office manager has denied likening Horizon system developers Fujitsu to a “man who had just shoved 15 inches of bayonet up my posterior”.
Ex-chief operating officer David Miller was quoted in a September 2010 PowerPoint presentation which also said leaders of the organisation felt they had been “shafted” by the UK government and the company then known as ICL Pathway.
The document, which was prepared by former IT programme manager and head of automation Dave Smith, said the agreement with the technology giant had been signed with a “gun pointed at the head” of the Post Office.
The document read: “The leaders at Post Office Counters Ltd (POCL) felt they had been shafted by a Government/Pathway stitch-up.
“Whilst the group’s board signed up to the deal (Sunday afternoon in the CEO’s kitchen!) they did so with a gun pointed at their head – ‘sign this or all the other things you want you can forget’.
“Post Office Counters Ltd felt stuffed by Pathway with terms that were imposed.
“Dave Miller, the MD of Post Office Network, said at the time: ‘I have the same feelings about Pathway as I would for the man who had just shoved 15 inches of bayonet up my posterior.’
“No statement could more adequately express the attitude of Post Office towards Pathway.”
Mr Miller told the Horizon IT inquiry on Tuesday that he had “absolutely not” made the comment, labelling the words “unprofessional”.
Counsel to the inquiry Emma Price asked: “Do you recall making the comment that’s in quote marks there?”
He replied: “Absolutely not.”
Ms Price continued: “Are you saying you didn’t make that comment?”
Mr Miller said: “I didn’t make that comment.”
The former chief operating officer said there was a “resentment” towards the company later known as Fujitsu.
He told the probe: “I think we felt, as a company, that we needed to carry on with the project and we needed to work with Pathway – ICL, Fujitsu.
“The sort of negativity about it, I think there was a resentment, perhaps understandably, but those words – a lot of that is entirely unprofessional.
“What we were trying to do was to make the thing work, to get it rolled out, to get Horizon in for the whole company, including subpostmasters, ironically.”
Mr Miller also told the inquiry he now recognised that the dual role the Post Office had as an investigator and a prosecutor, as well as the company’s financial interests, could have been considered a conflict of interest.
Ms Price said: “Do you accept now that these were foreseeable risks – taking one example that the interests of the business, in particular financial interests of the business, might improperly influence the conduct of investigations and prosecutions?”
Mr Miller replied: “I can see now, looking back, that that could well be the case.”
Ms Price continued: “At the time to what extent did you consider the position of the Post Office to be unusual, being simultaneously the alleged victim, the investigator and the prosecutor?”
Mr Miller said: “At the time I accepted it as part of what the company did.
“Subsequently I can understand how that is a potential conflict.”
During his time as managing director of Post Office Network, Mr Miller told the probe he “should not have said” to the organisation’s board that the faulty computer system was “robust and fit for purpose”.
Mr Miller was recorded as saying the words during the July 1999 board meeting.
He told the inquiry: “I should not have said that it was robust.”
Counsel to the inquiry Emma Price then asked: “What is your position on whether you did say that?”
Mr Miller replied: “I can’t remember the board meeting, but I make the assumption the board minutes are correct – so I did say it.”
Inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams interjected: “Sorry, Mr Miller, I want to be clear about this – you don’t actually remember what you said, you are prepared to assume that the board minutes are correct, and if they were correct, you should not have said what is recorded, is that it?”
Mr Miller said: “I’m afraid so, sir, yes.”
The Post Office has come under fire since the broadcast of ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which put the Horizon scandal under the spotlight.
More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the UK government-owned organisation and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Hundreds of subpostmasters are awaiting compensation despite the Government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.
