It has been revealed that a group of Post Office workers sent a letter asking MPs for help to address the ‘ongoing, intolerable leadership at the Post Office and the cover-up’.
The letter, sent in May, was presented as evidence at a recent hearing in the long running Post Office inquiry. This investigation began in 2022 after subpostmasters were wrongfully found guilty of fraud because of a defective computer system.
The whistleblowers claimed that Nick Read, who will appear in front of the inquiry this week, has overseen a culture which rewards an inner circle.
Read was appointed CEO on September 2019. He was brought in by the government to help lead the settlement with group litigants, and to pave the road for legislation that would exonerate those who were wrongly accused. He announced that he would step down from his position in March 2025.
The group describes themselves as “highly enfranchised Post Office workers” and says that no plan has been put in place to “address wrongs from the past”.
The letter was seen by Computer Weekly which exposed the scandal for the first time in 2009. It says: “We do not wish to be anonymous because we do believe that we will not be protected by the regime headed by Nick Read. We do think he will view what we say as an insult to his own leadership and the result will be a persistent campaign to tarnish us and remove us from this organisation.
We have heard this too many times and from too many people in the past few years.
They claim the Post Office conducted a recent survey of staff and subpostmasters, but they have been denied access to all the results.
The group adds: “We’re deeply frustrated by the fact that we have been denied access to all of the results despite our repeated requests.” This continuing cover-up, especially in light of the public enquiry and the expectation that the situation will change for the better, is unacceptable.
They claim that some employees receive preferential treatment. This includes expensive legal support in exchange for providing evidence at the public inquiry. They believe that some of the people involved may be in positions of conflict of interest, as they have held previous positions that resulted in wrongful convictions.
The whistleblower’s letter isn’t the first indication that there are problems with the Post Office workplace culture. A former finance chief said last week that Read preferred working with teams of “younger deferential men”, and gave very few senior positions to female colleagues.
Jane Davies, a former chief people officer of the company, had accused Read before of bullying. Davies, a former chief people officer at the company, believes that the company misrepresented the evidence she provided.
The Post Office investigation is in its final stage and will likely conclude in November or Decembre. During this phase, the Post Office inquiry will hear from current staff to determine if lessons have been learnt in the culture of the organization.
It was 25 years ago that the scandal began when Fujitsu, a Japanese computer manufacturer, developed the Horizon system for the Post Office.
A system malfunction caused hundreds of subpostmasters to have difficulty balancing their accounts. Many of them were then convicted of fraud. Some subpostmasters were wrongly jailed. Many lost their life savings. Four people committed suicide.
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