By Tom Bergin
LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese technology group Fujitsu (T:6702) said it could be two years away from resolving a dispute with the UK government over a 700 million pound IT contract the Department of Health cancelled in 2008.
UK media reports in 2014 said Fujitsu had won the legal fight and was set to scoop hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation.
But Duncan Tait, Fujitsu's head of Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, said talks on a contract settlement continued.
“We are still in the arbitration process,” he told a briefing of journalists in London.
"We would hope that would conclude within the next two years or so,” he added.
The contract was among a number agreed by the National Health Service to digitise records but was cancelled in 2008 with the NHS citing "poor performance".
A panel of MPs criticized the deals as offering “poor value for money” in a 2013 report, but added the NHS had badly planned the digitisation effort.
An investigation by the Public Accounts Committee revealed that the Department of Health had by 2013 spent 31.5 million pounds in legal costs alone, fighting the dispute with Fujitsu.
Tait declined to provide further details on the negotiations, such as how much Fujitsu expected to receive from the government.
Accounts for its main UK subsidiary have said a payout could be “significant”. In their report, MPs cited media reports that said the company was seeking 700 million pounds in damages.
Tait said Fujitsu's relationship with the UK government remained "very strong", noting a $1 billion (£715.4 million) deal agreed last year to provide services to the Ministry of Defence.