The justice ministry has pulled the plug on a new prison information system designed to keep track of who is in jail, for what crime and how long they must stay in prison, Trouw reports on Tuesday.

So far €12m has been spent on developing the system since it was first mooted in 2007. But the ministry says the new system is so big that it threatens to become unmanageable. ‘In addition, we have to cut spending on IT projects,’ a spokesman told the paper.
The new system, code named Cajis, has been due to come on line in December to replace the existing system which dates from 1993.
The paper says IT experts estimate the government spends between €4bn and €5bn on software projects which either partly or completely fail. According to a 2007 report from the national auditors office, expectations and ambitions are often too high.