Why council wants to take up Laptrust

Controversy over the management of the proposed county pension scheme has taken a new twist with the revelations that the county government employees are legally bound to subscribe to the existing pension scheme, according to the provisions of the County Government Act No. 17 of 2012.

The move is meant to protect existing public servants seconded to the county governments by the national government from loss of their retirement benefits.

A technical committee recommended to the Council of Governors the modalities for creating a sustainable pension scheme for the county government employees.

It had recommended the establishment of a new pension scheme through an Act of Parliament. This would have led to the closure of the two existing schemes —Local Authority Pension Trust (Laptrust) and Local Authority Provident Fund (Lapfund).

"Our scheme has pensioners. These people are not working, they are at home and they have to be paid pension throughout their lives," said Hosea Kili, Group Managing Director of Laptrust.

Consequently, the Council of Governors, resolved to adopt an existing umbrella pension scheme.

The council unanimously endorsed Laptrust as the retirement fund, with a change of name to the County Pension Fund to cater for various sponsors, as the scheme of choice.

According to CoG the proposed scheme would undergo restructuring to suit the county governments system within the next six months.