Counties stick with CPF for pension, says Ongwae

Kisii Governor James Ongwae has called on county employees to religiously contribute towards the County Pension Fund.

The CPF is the new umbrella retirement scheme of choice for county employees.

The certificate of name change from the Laptrust to CPF was officially presented on Thursday to the Retirement Benefits Authority during the CPF Group annual general meeting in Mombasa.

Ongwae said the fund already has over 45,000 members who raise about Sh2.1 billion monthly.

CPF is a contributory retirement benefit scheme for county employees where both the employer and employee contribute for the benefit of the employee. 

The Kisii Governor, who was the chief guest, said remittance to the pension scheme by county governments is almost up-to-date despite the RBA claiming there is at least Sh27 billion that has not been remitted.

He said any, which has not remitted their statutory deductions to the scheme could be because of the late or piece meal disbursement of county funds from National Treasury.

“As far as I am aware, at least my county government is up-to-date. I do not know of any county government that is not up-to-date.

“But if there any county government that is not up-to-date in terms of remittances, then it has to do with the way that we receive funds from the Treasury,” he said.

The chairman of human resources, labour and social welfare committee of the Council of Governors said governors have given priority to the remittances because they are also members of the scheme and expect to benefit from it after they retire.

“I am going to retire in the next three years and I expect to get my benefits. So, there is no way that my county can fail to make those statutory deductions,” said Ongwae.

He called on the Laptrust and Lapfund stakeholders to ‘shake hands’ amid the power struggles between the two.

Lapfund is managed by the Treasury in the National Government while Laptrust is more of the county managed.

However, the two are for county employees and not the national government employees.

“All we are saying is these are our funds and the count employees should be able to know how manage them. They need to have the spirit if the handshake,” said Ongwae.

He said the spirit has helped the country recover from economic turmoil and said it will also quell the fighting between Laptrust and Lapfund.

The CoG had proposed the merger of administrators of Laptrust and Lapfunds in the former local governments.

The debts existing make it unsustainable for new members to join the indebted schemes.

“We have asked that these resources (debts) be indicated and be configured in our national budget because these were contributions that we were supposed to be given,” said Ongwae.

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