(LEX 18) — State law requires Kentucky's Public Retirement Systems to reveal paperwork about investments, but a recent audit found problems with transparency.
State auditor Mike Harmon told the Public Pension Oversight Board exactly what is wrong on Monday. Harmon said the 70 page report revealed 10 ways in which Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) and Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) are not complying with the law. It specifically comes down to paperwork showing how KRS and TRS invest their money and how much they pay their money managers.
The auditor said that investment contracts, which are required to be posted online, are either missing from the website or heavily redacted.
The retirement systems said that those contracts need to be redacted because they contain trade secrets.
"This is certainty like a baseball player going up to the plate and being able to call his own balls and his own strikes," said Harmon.
"We do not post all investment manager contracts on our website and the answer is no, we don't and we have good reason not to. We don't control all redactions. No, we don't and we have good reason not to," said Kentucky Retirement Systems Executive Director David Eager.
That reason is losing possible investments.
The auditor said the people of Kentucky deserve to know how their money is being used.
