Kevin Hollinrake, the former Post Office minister, testified at the ongoing public inquiry into the Horizon scandal. He didn’t hold back when talking about the challenges of getting Post Office CEO Nick Read to trim central costs. “It felt like drawing teeth,” he said, especially since many executives had hefty salaries over £100,000.
Hollinrake pointed out the stark contrast between the lavish pay for executives and the struggles faced by subpostmasters just trying to stay afloat. He expressed disappointment that Read seemed unwilling to make necessary cuts, despite government pressure to reduce costs. “I never heard a convincing argument against cutting management to save money,” he stated.
He revealed that there were 143 executives pulling in six-figure salaries. Reducing this number could have directly increased pay for subpostmasters, which was something the government advocated. When questioned about who was resisting these cost cuts, Hollinrake didn’t hesitate, stating, “The CEO [Read] – the CEO carries the can for everything.”
While he acknowledged the tough time Read had leading an organization in crisis, he insisted that failing to implement needed changes was unacceptable. “I would have listened if Read had actually given me reasons for keeping certain people,” he added, but noted that Read never did.
Hollinrake labeled the failure to cut costs as a “failure in leadership” and criticized Read’s performance given his high salary, saying he was earning a lot for “not doing a very good job.” He recalled trying to get basic details about the management structure and plans for reducing senior staff, claiming it was like “drawing teeth.” He expected the CEO to have such information readily available.
On the topic of compensation for scandal victims, Hollinrake urged for independent experts to make decisions about financial redress instead of letting lawyers debate the issues.
The inquiry has now entered its seventh phase, digging into the Post Office’s current practices and future recommendations. This scandal first came to light in 2009 when Computer Weekly exposed the stories of seven subpostmasters who suffered due to faults in the Horizon software, marking one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.