This isn't a story about software engineering, it's a story about a shitty governmental department in a mediocre country not fixing something that everyone knows is broken, and threatening people with jail time instead.
Show me a similar story about stuff this bad happening at Google and I'll believe that there's something wrong with the field as practiced at its best.
The wider 'mood music' is also key here; the government was in the process of privatizing the Post Office i.e. so that they weren't the sole equity owner. Every decision (or non-decision, more appropriately) stemmed from that.
This is why the CEO was rewarded with a CBE and a cushy NHS post in 2019 when the scandal was in full swing. She was acting like a good girl for her political masters in managing the crisis, stringing it out long enough in the hope that everyone would forget
the software bugged and said they commited fraud, thats still half the problem and is a good time to repeat "stop putting software in things". we still need 40 more years before software "engineers" grow up and start doing things even anything near correctly. the other half of the problem is those people who just want tech for every problem. they just want shiny buttons, regardless of if they work. i dont know why but everything that these companies like fujitsu, hp, dell, acer, asus, sony, samsung, etc are all complete shit. i would vote to remove the government if they told me theyre going to start using some fujitsu product to decide who should go to jail. i just noticed a $6000 vent hood where if you adjust the fan speed you cant toggle the light within the next few seconds. even lay people understand that there is no reason for this aside from what could only be reasonably understood as absolute shit engineering.
the problem is people asking idiots who cant program even a simple button, to program serious enterprise, government, and military systems.
Show me a similar story about stuff this bad happening at Google and I'll believe that there's something wrong with the field as practiced at its best.