Such orders are issued after the staff concludes from an informal inquiry that a basis exists for a full investigation.

We do not divulge the names of our guests to informal inquiries.

At this stage we're only empowered to conduct this informal inquiry.

The six had been the subject of informal inquiries that could have been dropped without any official conclusions.

Before today's announcement, an informal inquiry was under way in the House.

Under practices at the institutes, an informal inquiry is the first step toward an official investigation of misconduct.

Executives said they were "fully cooperating" with "informal inquiries from government agencies."

They have also prompted an informal inquiry by the military prosecutor's office.

We have already carried out an informal inquiry which has validated this.

"We now want to get some information that we could not get through informal inquiries."