- The Post Office was more concerned with saving money and recovering unexplained losses than getting to the bottom of subpostmaster claims that Horizon errors caused shortfalls, inquiry told
By
- Karl Flinders,
Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA
Published: 06 Dec 2023 8:40
The Post Office prioritized staff bonuses based on recovery of money recovered from subpostmasters while ignoring the payment for crucial evidence to clear those wrongly suspected of foul play.
The Post Office investigator David Posnett and colleagues received bonuses based on performance scores derived from the money recovered from subpostmasters in deficit, but overlooked necessary evidence for suspected wrongdoing.
Between 2000 and 2013, over 900 subpostmaster prosecutions occurred, reliant on evidence from the unreliable Horizon computer system used for accounting. Nearly 100 subpostmasters have had their wrongful convictions overturned, while many more had their lives and businesses ruined due to the accounting system bugs.
Despite being willing to pay staff bonuses for recovering money and contribution towards the bottom line, the company was hesitant to utilize the ARQ (Audit record query) data to investigate losses caused by the Horizon system.