Newly obtained documents by the BBC show that Post Office executives made the decision to fire forensic accountants who had discovered glitches in their IT system in 2014. The sub-committee, codenamed “Project Sparrow” made this decision secretly, with the knowledge of the government. The Post Office has declined to comment on the matter.
Independent forensic accountants Second Sight played a vital role in bringing the scandal to light. They shed light on flaws in the Horizon computer system through which cash shortfalls were falsely created, leading to sub-postmasters being wrongfully prosecuted.
The Post Office continued to assert their confidence in their systems, but eventually faced pressure from MPs and established a mediation scheme to handle what it said were a small number of cases. Documents now reveal that they planned to pay only a million pounds in compensation to sub-postmasters as they quietly suppressed evidence of computer bugs in 2014.
The 2014 decision ensured that none of the Project Sparrow discussions were disclosed in evidence to sub-postmasters. The Post Office continued seeing Second Sight as an obstacle to the success of the mediation scheme, which excluded many victims from receiving any compensation
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More