Wed Sep 25 04:30:00 UTC 2024: ## Post Office IT Blunders Cost Taxpayers Millions
The Post Office’s IT procurement team has been slammed for a series of costly mistakes that have wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. This was revealed at the ongoing public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, which has seen hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly convicted for accounting discrepancies caused by faulty software.
The latest revelation concerns a botched attempt to migrate the Post Office’s IT systems to the cloud. The project, known as New Branch IT (NBIT), was abandoned after £35 million was spent, leaving the Post Office with only a new air conditioning system in Belfast. This comes after previous revelations about the procurement team rushing to secure a 5% discount on hardware, resulting in millions of units sitting unused in warehouses. This hardware is deemed unfit for purpose and could be outdated before it can be used.
The Post Office has acknowledged some of the mistakes, admitting that the cloud migration program proved to be “technically challenging and costly.” They have also stated that the project was abandoned in November 2022 and that the loss was £31 million.
However, Saf Ismail, a subpostmaster and non-executive director at the Post Office, has been highly critical of the procurement team’s approach. He described the procurement process as “a bit of a mess” and highlighted the team’s tendency to negotiate long-term contracts “to avoid having to do procurement again.” Ismail believes this approach is “not helpful” and ultimately results in wasted taxpayer funds.
The Post Office has come under immense scrutiny for its handling of the Horizon scandal and the NBIT project. With the public inquiry ongoing, the Post Office’s future IT plans remain uncertain, but the cost of these mistakes will continue to burden taxpayers for years to come.
First Piper 