Governors pick fight with Lapfund over pension funds

Governors have picked a fight with the Local Authorities Provident Fund (Lapfund) over its decision to take over the management of retirement benefits of county employees.

In a statement published in the dailies yesterday, the Council of Governors accused the fund of violating the Constitution by presenting Lapfund as the new manager of county retirement schemes under the banner of “County Government Retirement Scheme (CGRS)”.

“The Council of Governors (CoG) notes with utmost concern of the publication…on October 23, 2019 to the effect that Lapfund is now County Government Retirement Scheme (CGRS).

We wish to notify all county governments, their employees and the general public that the advertisement is mischievous and is calculated to misrepresent facts…,” said CoG chairman Wycliffe Oparanya.

Existing schemes

Oparanya further said the disputed advertisement is “misleading” to the extent that “it purports that County Government Retirement Scheme’ is the successor of Lapfund”.

On the contrary, the CoG chair said the CGRS, as per County Governments Retirement Scheme Act (2019), is set to be the new entity managing both Laptrust and Lapfund, adding that CGRS is not a continuation of Lapfund.

“[The Act] provides for the closure of Lapfund and Laptrust scheme while establishing a new entity to which these existing schemes currently serving county employees will eventually merge,” said Oparanya.

“Lapfund is a national government State corporation domiciled at the National Treasury. County Governments have their own pension fund—the County Pension Fund—where over 50,000 county employees have joined thus far.”

Oparanya also maintained that the decision by county governments to adopt and jointly own the County Pension Fund “still stands and has not been that varied.”

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