Failed i-Police project cost the taxpayer over 139 million euros

I-Police was launched at the end of 2021 to digitise police operations. As there were still no ‘tangible’ results by 2025, Interior Minister Bernard Quintin (Francophone liberal MR) pulled the plug on the project.

In the Chamber Home Affairs Committee earlier this year, Quintin had to admit that 75.8 million euros of taxpayers’ money had by then been spent on the failed project. At the time the MPs who fired off questions already suspected that the actual figure would be considerably higher.

At Parliament’s request, the Court of Auditors conducted a thorough review of the entire i-Police project. That report, published Wednesday morning, reveals that 139.4 million euros was spent on i-Police. That is almost double the amount initially reported.

Millions spent on unusable licences

The Court of Auditors, which audits the government’s finances, highlights, amongst other things, the purchase of 30 million euros worth of software licences, the vast majority of which are now unusable.

“Licences worth 21.6 million euros (70 per cent) are now of no use whatsoever to the police: licences worth 7.3 million euros were never used. Licences worth 14.2 million euros were used during the development phase, but the licences have become unusable due to the project being scrapped,” the report states.

“The analyses carried out by the police in 2024 and 2025 highlighted a significant financial risk regarding the licences,” the report continues. “After all, the costs are not limited to the initial purchase, as the costs for maintenance, support and renewal span several years.”

“These costs can become problematic if the solutions in question are not rolled out, are only partially utilised, or if the future of the project to which they belong is uncertain.”

'Quick wins'

The report also highlights the existence of two so-called ‘quick wins’ – milestones that were to be completed as pilot projects within 12 to 18 months of the project’s start. If these ‘quick wins’ were not achieved, the police could have halted the programme.

The Court of Auditors points out that no clear milestones were defined and that the police had already commissioned follow-up projects worth tens of millions of euros, even before the pilot projects had been completed and evaluated.

Structurally dependent on consultants

A third major issue concerns the use of consultants. According to the Court of Auditors, the police – and therefore the government – are structurally dependent on external consultants for critical IT functions.

The report states that “the police’s recruitment conditions were not suitable for recruiting specialised and highly qualified candidates”. “Recruitment was made even more difficult by the shortage of IT professionals in the labour market and their high-salary expectations.”

Judicial investigation

The Court of Auditors emphasises that it has merely scrutinised the case file, without making any judgements as to who is responsible for the debacle.

A judicial investigation is currently underway into the possible misappropriation of public funds and conflicts of interest in the case.

In connection with that investigation, it emerged earlier this week that the spokesperson for Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (Flemish Christian democrat CD&V) and a spokesperson for the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office had been identified as suspects and are being investigated for possibly breaching professional confidentiality.

What is i-Police?

Digitising police processes, bringing together various data systems into a single information platform and thereby enabling the faster detection of risks and criminal networks: these were the ambitious objectives of the i-Police project, which was launched at the end of 2021.

The then Interior Minister, Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), signed a contract worth 299 million euros with the French IT consultancy firm Sopra Steria for this purpose. In December 2025, her successor, Quintin (MR), scrapped that colossal contract because, after years of invoicing totalling nearly 76 million euros, there had been “not a single tangible result”.

Shortly afterwards, the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the possible misappropriation of public funds and a conflict of interest in the case. Verlinden subsequently came under fire when it emerged that she had acted as a lawyer for Sopra Steria shortly before becoming Minister for the Interior in 2020.