Employees Provident Fund (EPF): Special Report

Abstract

This brief discusses the performance of the Employees' Provident Fund's (EPF) equity investments in the period 2009–2010 in comparison to risk-free government securities, the All Share Price Index (ASPI) and equity investments by the Employees' Trust Fund (ETF). It finds that the EPF's equity investments earned only one-fourth of what it would have earned if the same investment had been placed with the low-return government securities, underperformed the ASPI to the amount of LKR 40 billion and additionally, in 2010, the Employee’s Trust Fund’s (ETF) investments in equity performed 6 times better than the EPF’s investments in equity. The brief then concludes that the investment decisions of the management of the EPF which led to the underperformance of the fund are not without beneficiaries and that some mechanism is needed to hold accountable those responsible for the fund to ensure prudent management.