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Chris
Jarnail Singh[IMCEAEX-
O=MMS_OU=EXCHANGE+20ADMINISTRATIVE+20GROUP+20+28F Y DIBOHF23SPDLT+29
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0057 16658847 @C72A47 ingest. local]
Thur 16/01/2014 5:07:30 PM (UTC)
Hugh Fleming
Robin Gregory[;
RE: Budget -appointment of Independent Horizon expert Draft for approval for EXco Monday
The purpose of this email is to request approval for expenditure of between £100K to £200K. For the
appointment of Independent Horizon expert. Once approved we will define and confirm the scope and
approach between all parties so that we have better estimate on costs.
1. The present position is POL do not have an expert in place and thus are unable to prosecute cases
OR to take Civil recovery proceedings and this expert report would also be useful to POL in Mediation
scheme and provide greater assurances of the audit data..
In general only three distinct offences are prosecuted by POL: Theft; False Accounting; and Fraud. Theft
usually involves the direct appropriation of (usually) monies by those handling POL money. False Accounting;
and Fraud may be viewed as the falsification of records so as to hide lost or stolen funds. In these cases
SPMR’s will assert that the Horizon Online (HOL) system has thrown up unexplained losses or shortages and,
in fear of repayment or loss of contract, they have falsified their accounts so as to hide the fact from POL.
a)
¢)
d)
e)
f)
Accordingly the detection and successful prosecution of such offences is almost always
dependent upon a proper analysis of HOL data and its effective presentation both to defence
representatives and to the court. Thus it is imperative that the integrity of the data in HOL is
demonstrably robust. To this end POL has relied upon the statements of Dr. Gareth Jenkins,
an expert witness provided by Fujitsu.
In every report and at court Dr. Jenkins testified as to the integrity and robustness of HOL:
“1 fully believe that Horizon will accurately record all data that is submitted to it and
correctly account for it.” Unfortunately Dr. Jenkins continued to make this assertion, in a
number of cases after he became aware of the existence of defects in HOL, defects which, in
a significant number of instances, had returned false balance figures.
Shortly after the publication a further report, now referred to as the Helen Rose, or Lepton
P.O. Report, came to light. The effect (if not the substance) of this report was to cast a further
shadow over both HOL and those who had asserted its reliability in court documents and in
court.
Accordingly Dr. Jenkins failure to mention the HOL defects in his expert witness statements
or to POL and POL prosecutors rendered his written statements inaccurate and misleading.
One effect of these reports was to render Dr. Jenkins wholly untenable as an expert witness.
On the 8" July 2013 Cartwright King advised POL that there ought in future to be at least one
degree of separation between any expert witness called in support of a POL prosecution and
POL/Fujitsu.
We have identified two experts, as the ideal candidates for this role .These are highly
respected experts from internationally recognised institution of Imperial College London.
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These experts has the ability to call upon other expertise from relevant disciplines from the
institution. Both have agreed to take on this work.
g) This is essential piece of work and will help to resolve the concerns as to the integrity of HOL
system and also demonstrate its fitness for purpose. This will help POL prosecution to
demonstrate the system is working properly. This is a major piece of work ,once done it
should not need to be repeated.
2.There are three sets of costs which will need to be budgeted for to obtain the expert
evidence ;
a). Fujitsu costs to cover them to provide support in scoping and preparing the expert evidence.
b). Cartwright King costs.
c). Expert costs.
3.Present position is to agree scope of expert between Fujitsu , Experts and POL.
Following cooperation of Fujitsu it is envisaged more focus instructions can be provided to the
experts. Report will be limited to POL operations counter and audit function of the system
and will not assess integrity of third-party interfaces, e.g. DVLA; UKBA; banks etc. This renders
the task easier, more cost-effective.
Here are a few words to explain the current scope.
@ The Horizon Application has been designed to ensure that accurate and auditable records are kept of
all sub-postmaster transactions
@ When a transaction is conducted at a counter, an auditable mechanism has been built in to ensure
these transactions are taken from the counter, stored in the Horizon main branch database and then
copied to an audit database
@ This mechanism can be considered a ‘closed loop’ where information is securely exchanged from the
counter to the Horizon branch database and then on to the audit database
@ Whilst copies of transaction data are provided to numerous external systems from the main Horizon
database, the Core Audit Process is segregated, its records are security sealed and audit records
cannot be accessed or changed through external interfaces
@ Given the nature of the design, the Core Audit Process is fundamental to any examination of the
integrity of transaction data
@ A number of ‘assertions’ can be independently examined to test the robustness of the audit process
@ N.B. Where necessary any external systems will need to be examined and compared to the Core Audit
Data on a needs basis dependant on individual cases
It is also envisaged that interim report would be delivered within 10 weeks to 12 weeks from now, with an
interim report within 8 weeks from instruction
This is a long term solution to a pressing problem. Without such experts POL will be unable to
recover SPMR shortages/losses in any case where the SPMR asserts that the shortage/loss is due to
some (usually ill-defined) HOL defect.
Of course, POL will also benefit from the knowledge that, independently, HOL has been certified as
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having the necessary degree of integrity — the public relations effect of that position, in the present
climate, is both positive and far-reaching.
ExCo is asked to: approve expenditure of between £100k to £200k.
Jarnail Singh I Criminal Lawyer
148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ.
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