Britain’s Financial Reporting Council has opened an investigation into EY over its audit of Post Office Limited, it said on Wednesday, amid the lingering fallout from one of the country’s worst miscarriages of justice.
The FRC said in a statement it will focus on the audit firm’s role in approving the Post Office’s financial statements from 2015 to 2018, particularly the Horizon IT system which was at the heart of the scandal.
“We have been notified of the FRC’s intention to open an investigation into the EY audits of Post Office Limited for the financial years ending March 2015 – March 2018. We take our public interest responsibilities extremely seriously and will be fully cooperating with the FRC during their investigation,” a spokesperson for EY said.
Hundreds of self-employed workers at the state-owned Post Office were wrongly prosecuted or convicted between 1999 and 2015 for false accounting, theft and fraud, because of glitches in a software system that incorrectly showed money missing from accounts.
Some were jailed, lost their marriages or otherwise saw their lives destroyed while others died before their names could be cleared.
Spurred into action last year by public outcry following a television series that dramatised the scandal, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sought to quash the wrongful convictions while a police investigation and public inquiry have also been carried out.
In another news, New Daily Prime reported in March that the European Union has made it clear that Russia must fully withdraw from Ukraine before any sanctions on Moscow can be lifted, in a sharp rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s hopes of striking a quick ceasefire deal.
In a statement issued, the European Commission reiterated its stance that the cessation of Russia’s “unprovoked and unjustified aggression” in Ukraine, along with the unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from Ukrainian territory, would be essential preconditions for any changes to the sanctions regime.
The remarks came after President Trump appeared to make significant headway in negotiations with Russian officials during marathon talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, where he agreed to Russian demands for the lifting of international sanctions in exchange for a partial truce in the Black Sea.
The White House also signalled that Ukraine might be asked to cede territory to Russia as part of a final peace settlement, a proposal swiftly rejected by European leaders.
