The Post is recruiting a board member to oversee the vast compensation scheme resulting from the computer scandal that led to the prosecution of hundreds of deputy postmasters.
Sky News has learned that the government has cleared the appointment of a new non-executive director to chair a committee overseeing the management of the company’s historic deficit program – at a cost of up to hundreds of millions of pounds.
A deadline for candidates for the post has reportedly expired in recent days, and Whitehall insiders said on Thursday they expected the nomination process to end quickly.
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The decision to hire a new director emerged the same week the government confirmed a Sky News report that it was changing the terms of an investigation into the Post’s Horizon IT scandal to put it on a statutory footing.
This will give Sir Wyn Williams, the chairman of the investigation, the power to compel witnesses to appear and to hand over documents related to the investigation.
The Post’s Historic Deficits Program was launched last year to allow applications from current and former postmasters who believe they have suffered the consequences of the Horizon system.
He followed a group dispute resolution between the company and 555 postmasters – mostly retired.
Nick Read, the post’s managing director, urged the government to provide funding for the compensation.
“The Post simply does not have the financial resources to provide meaningful compensation,” he said in a recent speech.
“I fully understand that the government is keen on the Post being seen as fixing its own mess – and thanks to the work that the company does every day to identify the needs and …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-05-20 10:53:00
