| dc.description.abstract | This survey provides a critical analysis of the extent to which Retirement Benefits
Schemes in Kenya comply with the Retirement Benefits Act. The rationale of the
study is that not all schemes fully comply with requirements of the Act and to
analyze the relationship between the level of compliance and financial performance
of the schemes. The population consists of 1,380 established retirement benefits
schemes. The secondary data from the Retirement Benefits Authority was analyzed
using descriptive statistics. The results show that the compliance rate is about 10%
and 90% of the compliant schemes are the defined contribution schemes. At a 95%
level of statistical significance, the relationship between the extent of compliance and
financial performance of retirement benefits schemes is not significant. Hence, the
null hypothesis: "The extent of compliance of retirement benefits schemes in Kenya
with the Retirement Benefits Act does not significantly influence the financial
performance of the retirement benefits schemes," is accepted. The study shows that
the difficulties faced by the schemes in complying with the Retirement Benefits Act
include: Unremitted contributions, increased costs, short notice to comply, low
literacy levels among the trustees, legislative restrictions, and conflict of financial
year end, poor administrative procedures and interference from the
sponsors/ trustees. On specific compliance issues, the defined contribution schemes
perform better than defined benefit schemes exceptin provision of audited accounts
where 90% of the defined benefit schemes are compliant compared to 72% of the
defined contribution schemes. The study further shows that the disparity in
complying with audited accounts can be attributed to the defined benefits sponsors'
direct responsibility as opposed to the defined contributions schemes. | en |
