SOME top officials in the presidency are now in palpable fears, as a result of the Presidential Projects Assessment Committee (PPAC) which was recently inaugurated by the acting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, to probe some projects embarked upon by the administration.

Nigerian Tribune reliably gathered that the fears being expressed were that the Ibrahim Bunu-led panel might have written its report long before the commencement of its work, as it was alleged that details of the report had been leaked to the media.

Also, it was alleged  that the panel was only targeting two ministries, namely Ministry of Petroleum Resources and that of Agriculture and Water Resources, as well as the projects embarked upon in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) projects.

The news report, said to have been widely circulated in the media and which was not denied by the presidency or members of the  panel, was said to be causing concern in government circles as to what might be the main objectives of the probe panel.

“The committee was inaugurated on March 3. It wrote letters to selected ministries and agencies same day and told them to submit reports on their projects in one week. The day after inauguration, it was all over the media that the panel would go after four bodies. These facts raise a lot of questions,” a presidency source said.

Alleging that members of the panel had boasted last week that their report was ready and only waiting for the final approval, an official of one of the agencies under probe was reported to have said “the whole thing looks suspicious. If a panel was set up to probe projects, the focus on just four ministries or departments looks as if there is more to it than meets the eye.”

A member of the 19-man panel, who was said to be unhappy with the turn of events, had reportedly told other members that they must not do the bidding of any individual.

The panel’s terms of references, among others, included taking inventory of all ongoing projects awarded by the Federal Government; assessing the level of funding of each project and evaluate the professional competence of contractors handling the projects.

The panel was also to examine a plan of action that would be realistic, practical and achievable, among other terms.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the committee, immediately after its inauguration, swung into action, seeking to look into all existing Federal Government projects across the country, with a view to ascertaining those that had been executed and those that were yet to be executed.

It was widely reported that the probe of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would be focusing on the over N600 billion subsidies on petroleum alleged to have been spent by the corporation on various spurious projects.

In the same vein, the investigation of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture by the panel was expected to focus on the implementation and disbursement of the 40 per cent credit facility released by the Federal Government, amounting to N9.52 billion to 10 selected rice-processing companies.

The credit facility was meant for the procurement, installation and setting up of model rice processing mills in some states across the country.

The committee would also review the utilisation of the sum of N2.8 billion, being 40 per cent grant released by the Federal Government to selected six private sector organisations that were investing in the establishment of  export handling, preservation and conditioning centres in six locations across the country.