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Fujitsu’s former UK head has stepped down from his position on the Cupboard Workplace, following criticism of the Japanese firm for its position within the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal.
Michael Keegan will go away his publish as a crown consultant on the Cupboard Workplace. He was appointed to the position chargeable for managing the federal government’s relationship with BAE Programs in September 2019.
Keegan, the husband of UK training secretary Gillian Keegan, held senior posts at Fujitsu when the corporate’s actions relating to Put up Workplace convictions got here to mild in a sequence of court docket hearings.
His departure from the Cupboard Workplace was posted in an replace on the division’s web site on Friday. The federal government declined to remark.
Keegan, who left Fujitsu in 2018, had held the publish of UK chief govt for little greater than a yr between March 2014 and June 2015. He continued as the corporate’s head of know-how throughout Europe and the Center East earlier than departing in July 2018.
Greater than 900 sub-postmasters had been convicted utilizing information from Fujitsu’s defective Horizon IT system, together with 700 prosecuted by the Put up Workplace between 1999 and 2015.
Keegan left the corporate earlier than the Excessive Courtroom dominated in December 2019 that the invention of greater than two dozen “bugs, errors and defects” had revealed a “materials danger” that Horizon was responsible for the defective information utilized by the Put up Workplace of their prosecutions.
A authorities insider mentioned Keegan’s resolution to go away the Cupboard Workplace was voluntary and never a part of an effort to take away any alleged conflicts of curiosity forward of ministers’ talks with Fujitsu over the sub-postmasters’ compensation settlement. Keegan’s position on the Cupboard Workplace was part-time and carried a £500 every day price.
Fujitsu has agreed to contribute to a £1bn compensation fund put aside by the federal government to supply redress to greater than 4,000 individuals affected by the scandal. Ministers had threatened the enterprise with “monetary sanctions” if it did not pay in.
The federal government will enter into talks with Fujitsu following the conclusion of a public inquiry. It’s scheduled to conclude hearings in summer time 2024, however has not but set a date for its remaining report.
Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s present Europe chief govt, instructed MPs this month that the corporate acknowledged it had a “half to play” in offering compensation and was “really sorry” for its involvement within the affair.
“We had been concerned from the very begin, we did have bugs and errors within the system and we did assist the Put up Workplace within the prosecution of sub-postmasters,” Patterson mentioned.
The corporate has additionally agreed to droop bids for brand new public contracts because it awaits the findings of a public inquiry into the affair.
Keegan couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
