LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought record in detail from the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) after it launched a thorough probe into the alleged fraud, misrepresentation, misuse of public office and consequent financial loss to the national exchequer in connection with the prequalification, tender participation and award of works related to Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI)/Smart Metering.

Through a letter to Lesco management on Friday, the FIA has sought provision of the complete, original and certified record related pre-qualification dossiers of M/s World Over Engineering (Pvt) Limited, M/s WOSCO Metering (Pvt) Limited and M/s AM Associates (Pvt) Limited.

It has also sought record pertaining to last five pre-qualifications carried out by Lesco, minutes of meetings of the pre-qualification committee(s) of Aug 25, 2025 and Aug 28, 2025, recommendations, approvals and noting sheets related to the aforementioned companies, notification/letter of Sept 2, 2025 whereby M/s AM Associates (Pvt) Limited was pre-qualified in categories M-1 and M-5, along with complete record of the file noting, authority under which the said notification was issued, approval of competent forum/committee (if any), complete documentation that led to change of name of the company/companies, complete record related to denotification dated 08-09-2025 of M/s World Over Engineering (Pvt) Limited and M/s WOSCO Metering (Pvt) Limited from Lesco’s pre-qualified list.

The authority has further asked the Lesco management to provide all correspondence, letters, emails and internal notes received from or exchanged with M/s World Over Engineering (Pvt) Limited, M/s WOSCO Metering (Pvt) Limited and M/S AM Associates (Pvt) Limited and SEC regarding merger/amalgamation, change of name, continuation of prequalification or transfer of eligibility.

The record related to documents relied upon by Lesco to treat the merger as a “change in business name, complete tender file(s) relating to last 05 AMI/Smart Metering projects, including tender No. 4212 and allied tenders, bidding documents, bid submissions of all three companies, bid opening minutes, evaluation reports, comparative statements, technical and financial responsiveness reports and one page briefs of last five AMI Tenders narrating all steps in chronological order has also been sought.

The FIA further seeks minutes of pre-bid meeting dated 25-08-2025, subsequent amendments to qualification criteria, and minutes dated 28-08-2025, award letters, contracts, work orders and schedules issued in favour of the aforementioned firms, copies of all bank guarantees submitted by the above companies after 07-04-2025, including issuance dates, validity, encashment or cancellation status, record of payments made, cheques issued, invoices processed, and amounts released in favor of the companies after 07-04-2025.

Moreover, the details related to any verification reports, inspections, factory audits, prototype approvals, educational orders or performance certificates relied upon while evaluating eligibility and awarding contracts after 07-04-2025 and correspondence, if any with other power distribution companies (Discos--Gepco, Fesco, Iesco, Pesco AJK, et.) regarding performance or eligibility of these companies.

“The abovementioned complete certified record may be provided through an officer well versant into the subject on 31-12-2025, not below the rank of BPS-17, without fail,” the FIA warns.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2025