The Post Office is dumping its replacement for the scandal-hit Horizon IT system after setbacks caused costs to skyrocket to as much as £2billion, the Mail can reveal.
The in-house New Branch IT system (NBIT) was supposed to be finished by March 2024 at an initial cost of £200million over three years.
But difficulties in its development led to expensive delays.
Staff were yesterday told that the Post Office’s sole stakeholder, the Government, has refused to fund the system’s £1million-a-week running costs.
A Post Office spokesman last night said it had signed a one-year contract extension with Japanese tech giant Fujitsu to run Horizon until March 2026.
The spokesman said ‘significant aspects of what had been developed for NBIT have already or will be repurposed’ and added that the Post Office has ‘a process for the management of bugs, errors and defects when it comes to Horizon’.
