Donovan's Shake-Up of Pension Plan Unit Seen Strengthening Enforcement of Law
WASHINGTON -- A major Labor Department shake-up could result in stepped-up enforcement of the law governing the nation's private pension plans.</br></br>Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan announced he is making the department's pension program an independent unit that will report directly to him. The program previously had been one of numerous responsibilities of the department's Labor-Management Services Administration, an arrangement critics have said contributed to wrongdoing by private pension plans.</br></br>The pension program investigates possible criminal violations, such as theft, embezzlement, bribery and kickbacks by pension plans, as well as civil violations, such as the failure of trustees to seek the best return on investments.</br></br>The reorganization will strengthen enforcement "through increased efficiency and productivity," Mr. Donovan said. Robert Monks, the pension-program chief, concurred in an interview. "I think it will enable the focus and training of people to be specifically to the kinds of problems that are unique" to pension and employee-benefit plans, he said, adding, "We should be able to do a better job."</br></br>Enforcing portions of the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act is considered one of the department's most important activities. The law is intended to protect workers, retirees and their families who participate in 558,000 private pension plans; the total assets currently exceed $600 billion and those assets probably will reach $1 trillion by next year.