Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

In October 2022, the UK Government Digital Service entered into an initial one-year contract with #Fujitsu, which “will be responsible for all the technical delivery, design iterations and 24/7 operational support” of the emergency alerts system tested yesterday.

Fujitsu previously fulfilled a one-year £665,000 contract covering project-management and support services during the development of the alerts service, which has been in the works since 2018 and was tested in several parts of England in 2021, before its nationwide launch.

Concerns have been raised about why the Govt awarded the £5 million contract to run the emergency alert programme to Fujitsu, the company behind the Post Office IT scandal that led to the conviction of more than 700 postmasters, as well as suicides & wrongful imprisonment.

As Lord Clement-Jones said in the HoL, on 19th April: Fujitsu "was described as giving unsatisfactory & inaccurate evidence in the case brought by the sub-postmasters. The #NHS terminated two contracts with it back in 2008-09, then Fujitsu sued the NHS for £700 million."

The Non-Executive Chairman of Fujitsu UK when they sued the UK Govt's Department of Health for almost £700 million – and won – was Simon Blagden, a major Tory donor who regularly dines with Theresa May & other senior figures from the @Conservatives.

vice.com/en/article/59x…

Fujitsu were a supplier on the #NHS Programme for IT, a disastrous scheme that sought to digitise NHS medical information. When the scheme failed in 2011, at a cost of at least £2.7 billion to the taxpayer according to official spending watchdog the National Audit Office.

Thanks to provisions in the contract, Fujitsu’s case was held in a secretive, business-friendly court called the London Court of International Arbitration, who ruled in Fujitsu's favour.

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/call…

The Department of Health and Fujitsu reached a final settlement at the end of 2018, the amount of which remains a secret. But Fujitsu were initially demanding £700 million, and their accounts say they received just £71.2 million less than they expected.

Even if Fujitsu only received half of their claim, it still means the government were forced to give away hundreds of millions that could have been spent on our healthcare, all for a failed computer system. The Department of Health refused say how much they were forced to pay.

So although Simon Blagden ran a firm that's heavily sued the government, it didn’t stop him from forking out his own cash to get close to senior @Conservatives. Blagden and his wife run a consultancy that by 2019 had given the @Conservatives £215,000 since 2005.

These donations hadn't attracted much attention for two reasons. Firstly, he donated through his personal consultancy firm, Pietas Ltd, rather than in his own name. Secondly, he donated in small instalments.

The @Conservatives used to allow all donors who give more than £50,000 to join a “donor club” called “The Leader’s Group” whose “members are invited to join senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners”. The Tories appeared to have given Blagden a concessional rate.

Blagden went to at least two dinners with Theresa May in 2018, and at least one in 2017. Then Chancellor Philip Hammond, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and other top Tories also joined May and Blagden at these dinners.

The #NHS debacle wasn't Fujitsu's only Govt contract.

In addition to the contract for the Post Office IT scandal, in 2015 Fujitsu were given a £550 million contract to run Ministry of Defence telecoms, and were part of the Atlas consortium that won a £933 million military IT contract.

"The cosy relationship between companies receiving state contracts & those at the top of Govt would be worrying enough... Fujitsu has not only been making profit out of our public services, but also suing Govtt departments when its contracts are terminated." - #WeOwnIt, 2019.

In July 2022, Simon Blagden CBE was appointed by then Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries to chair Building Digital UK (BDUK) - the agency in charge of delivering the government’s roll out of faster broadband & mobile coverage across the UK.

Placing Blagden "at the helm of the executive agency overseeing Project Gigabit, the biggest broadband roll out in British history backed with a record £5 billion to connect hard-to-reach areas across the UK, as well as the £1 billion Shared Rural Network".

In a virtual meeting on 4th May 2021, then PM Boris Johnson & India's PM Modi agreed "a deeper cooperation between the UK & India, including a new Enhanced Trade Partnership paving the way for a future UK-India Free Trade Agreement".

What's this got to do with anything?

Details about the emergency alerts contract -precisely who is delivering what - are more than a little hazy. While Fujitsu are the main contractor, it's unusually hard to find any information on who they may have partnered with, or subcontracted aspects of the contract out to.

"It is completely wrong—I would say immoral—for any department of Govt to pay money to a company whose actions, carelessness & downright stupidity in some respects have led to the deaths of British subjects, to the incarceration of others". - Tory Lord Cormack, 19th April 2023.

What we DO know is that the 2021 trade deal with India claimed that the "New Indian investment deals" included the creation of "1,000 UK jobs" by Indian multinational IT company #Infosys, that provides 'business consulting, information technology & outsourcing services'.

We also know that #Infosys is keen to promote its joint venture with 'Service Now' - the Emergency Response Apps', "helping enterprises navigate through these unprecedented times... with emergency response apps for all our customers".

infosys.com/services/exper…

Infosys also promotes its partnership with Telstra "to build an emergency alert system": "Since its inception, the system has rolled out over seven million messages, not only for bushfires, but also cyclones, floods & missing persons - all over Australia." infosys.com/australia/news…

Now, like I say, apart from a few unevidenced online rumours (like the one below), I cannot find any good evidence to link #Fujitsu's emergency alert contract with #Infosys.

But this doesn't mean there isn't any, or that we should stop raising concerns.

https://twitter.com/HBFash1007/status/1650382295587512321?s=20

On 31st January, 2023, Labour/Co-Op MP Anna McMorrin said "it is reported today that Infosys, the Indian-based IT firm, which holds several contracts with public services here, is in a £20 million dispute with His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs."

theguardian.com/business/2023/…

And on April 13th we found out that multimillionaire ex-investment banker & UK PM Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, will receive nearly £6.7 MILLION in dividend payments from her shares in the tech company Infosys, co-founded by her billionaire dad.

theguardian.com/politics/2023/…

The payment, due to be distributed in July, will bring Murty’s "earnings" from #Infosys to £13 MILLION for this financial year.

The company announced a first dividend after its financial results in October, of which Murty’s share was an estimated £6.25 MILLION.

Cheers! 🤑🥂🍾

To reiterate: there is no evidence I can find to support the view that #Infosys is involved in delivering the emergency alert contract.

Furthermore, it looks like the main contract for helping to build the emergency alert delivery system went to US tech firm, #Everbridge.

#Everbridge is a US enterprise software company, formerly known as 3n Global & the National Notification Network. It began operations in 2002 & has worked on similar alert systems in Estonia, Spain, Germany, Singapore, New Zealand, Norway, & Denmark.

Emergency alert systems became common in some countries. South Korea, the US and the Netherlands all have widespread cellular warning systems, while other nations including Germany & Japan have maintained older warning systems dating back to the cold war or earlier.

In Japan, emergency broadcast systems are incorporated into daily life. The Bōsai Musen system consists of banks of loudspeakers mounted on poles across the country, & in smaller towns & villages comes to life every day to play a collection of folk tunes known as the “5pm chime”.

But that approach has been criticised: when the system was used for real in 2011, as a tsunami was bearing down on the country’s east coast, some ignored the warnings, apparently due to overexposure.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, America’s Federal Communications Commission takes a hard line on any attempt to trivialise its own emergency warning system.

The “emergency alert system” can seize control of any TV or radio channel in the country, and plays a piercing sound of two simultaneous high-frequency tones.

Distinctive and disruptive, the sound has been used in films, adverts and news broadcasts – and attracts six-figure fines each time it does, most recently in January when Rupert Murdoch's Fox used the illegal sound to advertise an #NFL game.

“The promotional segment’s ‘comedic tone’ also did not alter or neutralise its overall effect of falsely warning listeners and viewers of a nonexistent emergency,” the FCC said in dishing out the $500,000 penalty.

hackaday.com/2023/02/07/fox…

In other news..

https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1650460730523516928?t=oEScI5UdlAfH_92YY08YGg&s=19

Here's a link to the Government's October 2022 contract (to run to October 2025) with #Fujitsu, heavily redacted in places, valued at £1,600,000 to £5,000,000.

contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/6e9669c…