The Dutch government lost between €4bn and €5bn a year on failing IT projects, information science professor Hans Mulder told a parliamentary committee on Friday.

Just 7% of the projects with a budget starting at €7.5m can be said to be successful, Mulder told MPs. In total, 70% of projects fail.

Of those which flop, 36% fail so seriously the new system is never used and around half are of doubtful value because they turn out to be too expensive, take too long or produce unexpected results, Mulder said.

Mulder is a professor at the University of Antwerp, an entrepreneur and advisor on ICT. He was speaking on the first day of hearings into government ICT policy.