LAHORE, Feb 4: Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court has directed the Federal Investigation Agency to hold an inquiry against the mint master and the deputy mint master for awarding a contract for the supply of 200 metric tons of copper and 1,000 metric tons of nickel to the second lowest bidder.

The judge ordered the inquiry while disposing of a petition filed by FS Corporation, the lowest bidder ignored by the Pakistan Mint officials while awarding the contract.

The petitioner firm submitted that the mint officials did not award the contract to it despite an offer to cut down the quoted supply price by Rs2.8 million.

The respondents could not justify ignoring the lowest bid while awarding the contract. They, however, claimed that the firm which was awarded the contract had agreed to lower the bid by Rs3 million and had already supplied the materials to the Pakistan Mint.

The supplier, also one of the respondents, gave an undertaking not to receive Rs3 million out of the total amount recoverable on account of the supplies. — Reporter