Kampala — Vital information on Alcon International, the construction firm which is set to receive Shs31 billion in an out-of-court settlement with NSSF following a long legal dispute over the Workers' House, has mysteriously gone missing at the companies' registry.

Daily Monitor has established that updated details of current Alcon directors and managers are missing from the file. Mr Bisereko Kyomuhendo, the Registrar General, has confirmed that his office cannot trace the information on Alcon's directors or it managers.

Mr Kyomuhendo also told Daily Monitor last week that he could no explain the disappearance of the updated records on Alcon file, which according to a temporary file his office provided to this newspaper, was filed in July 2007. "This is the problem with public offices, there are so many constraints," he said. "There is no way you can monitor all these movements."

Daily Monitor on October 6 wrote to Mr Kyomuhendo, requesting access to the updated records of Alcon International, the firm whose contract to construct Workers House was terminated nearly a decade ago over doing shoddy work.

On October 21, a temporary file with only scanty information about Alcon was produced to this newspaper. A staff at the registry who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said even the "temporary file was not in its usual place."

Daily Monitor has also learnt that the Alcon file went missing shortly before the company started its legal battles with the NSSF. Registry officials who spoke to Daily Monitor were largely evasive when asked about the missing file.

According to minutes of the Alcon board of directors meeting held on July 26, 2007 in Nairobi, the company director Rajesh Kent and secretary Manjit Kent running Alcon International in Kampala were indefinitely removed from office.

Kampala Associated Advocates, the firm that once represented Alcon consequently, wrote to the registrar general on August 31 2007 to effect the changes. "We recently received instructions from the company (Alcon) to file on their behalf a return of current directors and secretaries, paid the requisite fees but were informed by your officers that your file for the company got lost," the lawyers said. "We kindly request you to reconstitute the file using the company documents' photocopies of which are enclosed herewith to enable us file the said returns on behalf of our clients." The file seen by Daily Monitor did not reflect the changes and is silent on the firm's new directors.

Besides, form 19, 20, 21 and 22 which contains detailed information on the company and its management are all missing

"For us we keep the records of what has been filed," Mr Kyomuhendo said. "But the Alcon file has been missing for a long time and what you saw is a temporary file which we only opened because of their (Alcon) cases in court."

Alcon's ownership is not a subject of the court case against the NSSF but the insistence by the Fund's management to settle the matter out of court has raised questions about who would benefit from the payout.

Daily Monitor on August 25 revealed that the NSSF board had on August 20 agreed to disregard the advice of its lawyer and ink an out-of-court settlement with Alcon. The NSSF wants to pay Shs17.7 billion to Alcon and another Shs13.7 billion in costs to two Kampala law firms - bringing the total payout to Shs31.4 billion - despite the Fund's lawyer, J.B Byamugisha's belief that he can win in court.

Alcon's lawyers Tumusiime, Kabega & Co Advocates have lodged costs of $7.2 million (about Shs11.5 billion), while NSSF also plans to pay another $1.4 million (approx Shs2.2 billion) to Kampala Associated Advocates, a law firm that was in April thrown out by the Court of Appeal as having no instruction to represent Alcon.

The Federation of Uganda Employers and workers' unions have opposed an out-of-court-deal in the NSSF-Alcon affair, saying only the courts can settle the dispute fairly and justly. Civil society organisations, including the Platform for Labour Action and the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda have also opposed the proposed out-of-court settlement and taken the NSSF to court over the matter.

The civil society organisations say they want NSSF to "allow court proceedings in the Alcon case to go on to their logical conclusion given the suspicious intentions of the parties calling for an out-of-court settlement".

When Daily Monitor wrote the story, the NSSF management revealed that it has made provisions for the settlement has already been provided for in the NSSF budget. NSSF's Managing Director David Jamwa told Daily Monitor on July 14 that the Fund had received "independent legal advice" from a top-notch lawyer who advised the NSSF to cut its losses and settle the matter out of court.

Mr Jamwa said that going ahead with the court case would lead to the pay out increasing due to interest charges and legal fees. He said there was a possibility that the Fund would have to pay out more money in such a forced settlement, than the value of the disputed Workers' House in Kampala. The property is valued at Shs32b while the out-of-court amount is currently estimated at Shs28b.

NSSF contracted M/s Alcon International Ltd, a company incorporated in Kenya, to erect and complete a partially-constructed structure in the heart of the city as Workers' House. In May 1998, NSSF cancelled Alcon's contract, accusing it of stalling work, escalating the project's cost from its original $21 million to $35 million and sub-contracting a third party without its knowledge.

Alcon subsequently sued NSSF for breach of contract in the High Court and was awarded $8.9 million in 2001. NSSF later lodged an appeal in the Court of Appeal and that case has been pending for the last six years. Work on the project was handed to, and completed by, Roko Construction Ltd.

However, Alcon still retains the land title for the property. NSSF has also been under the spotlight over its acquisition of land at Temangalo from Security Minister Amama Mbabazi and businessman Amos Nzeyi and the tripling of the construction costs from Shs 36 billion to Shs 120 billion for Pension Towers