The justice ministry has wasted €103m on a failed ICT system it has been working on for the past ten years, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

The failure of the system, the integrated process system criminal justice (GPS), is reported in an internal evaluation by the ministry which has been handed to the FD, the paper reports.

The GPS was intended to digitalise all criminal files, saving staff the need to work with paper files.

According to the FD, the project was cancelled in 2011 when it proved unworkable. At that stage, it had cost €103m, four times the amount originally budgeted for.

This is not the first time the justice ministry has had problems with ICT projects. Last year the national audit office said the ministry had lost control of its income and outgoings when a new purchasing system was introduced.

The police are struggling with a system for criminal reports that does not work properly and which cost an estimated €175m. An ICT project at the police academy was recently cancelled at a cost of €9m.