Paula Vennells has blamed a former Post Office IT director for issues with the Horizon computer system not being investigated in 2009.
In her written evidence to the public inquiry, the organisation’s disgraced former boss revealed that an article by Computer Weekly on problems with Horizon was dismissed as “nonsense” by bosses.
Mike Young, the former operations director, who was in charge of IT at the Post Office until 2012, allegedly said that the trade magazine “did not know what it was talking about”.
Mr Young had been “adamant” that the article, which first revealed the plight of sub-postmasters suffering unexplained accounting shortfalls, should not be treated as a “red flag”, according to Ms Vennells.
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She wrote in her witness statement to the inquiry: “I remember the Computer Weekly article because it was mentioned by Mike Young at a meeting of the executive management team which I attended.”
She added: “Mike told us that the article was critical of Horizon and had been picked up by a Welsh-language television station.
“I remember this reasonably well because Mike was dismissive of Computer Weekly. I recall he said it was a trade magazine that did not know what it was talking about in relation to Horizon. Mike said he was handling it.
“I spoke to him about it after the meeting because I was still concerned. He assured me that there was nothing wrong with the system and that the article was nonsense (or words to that effect).”
She said later in her 861-page written statement that it was because Mr Young took such a “firm view” on this that potential concerns with the Horizon system were not escalated further within the organisation.
“As a non-IT specialist, I accepted that Mike, with his knowledge of IT and the Horizon system, had considered the article fairly and that it was no cause for concern. This message was reinforced during my time as MD of POL [Post Office Ltd] between 2010 and 2012,” she added.
The disclosures were made as Ms Vennells, 65, began her first of three days of evidence before the public inquiry.
Jason Beer, the lead counsel to the inquiry, questioned her on why she had a tendency to recall things that “diminish your blameworthiness” in her testimony.
He accused her of often saying she did not recall matters that could potentially be damaging to the Post Office, but “has no problem” remembering things that attribute blame to others.
“I don’t believe that’s the way I approach my statement at all,” she replied, adding that she had the intention to approach it with integrity and honesty.
It also emerged that Mr Young, who is mentioned frequently throughout Ms Vennells’s witness statement but has not yet been called to appear before the inquiry, said in 2012 that Post Office bosses “should not bother” meeting with an MP who wanted to discuss concerns from his constituents about Horizon.
Lord Arbuthnot, then MP for North East Hampshire, had written to Alice Perkins, the Post Office chairman, asking to meet as he was “deeply sceptical” of the Post Office’s view that there was nothing wrong with Horizon.
Ms Vennells wrote: “I recall that Alice was approached by Lord Arbuthnot, and Mike Young saying that we should not bother with it (or words to that effect).
“Alice and I both decided that she should meet Lord Arbuthnot on the basis that if there was nothing in the challenge, then we had nothing to worry about; and if there were issues, it was better to review what they were.”
The Telegraph has approached Mr Young for comment.