A project set up by The Hague city council to retrain hundreds of unemployed youngsters so they could find a job helped just 17 people before the €1.3m in funding ran out, Omroep West said on Wednesday.

The Energie Academie project was launched last February and should have helped 560 jobless youngsters and welfare claimants find work as plasterers, technicians and solar panel fitters over a two-year period.

City council research published last summer showed that the project’s managers and other staff paid themselves more than the market rate and spent too much on offices and equipment. However, a reorganisation failed to bring about improvements, Omroep West said.

The supervisory board has now applied for the foundation to be declared bankrupt, despite last ditch efforts to keep the company afloat. ‘The difference between what the creditors want and the supervisory board’s offer was too wide,’ Bert van Alphen, the council executive in charge of the project said in a briefing to city councillors.

It is unclear how much the Energie Academie has in debts.