Will the new benefits i.e. roll-over options, contribution limits, catch-up plans, non-refundable tax credits, for 401(k) employees effective 1/1/2002 also be applicable to public sector 401(a) money purchase pension plans? If so will these benefits be an option of the plan administrator or required to be included in the plan?

I'm not a real expert, but I have researched The provisions of EGTRRA for our 401(a) state and local governmental money purchase plan.

Here's what I found out.

The new rollover rules do apply to our plan.

In 2002, we are required to allow rollovers out of our plan and into 457(B), 403(B), and 401(k) plans in addition to the rollovers to other 401(a) plans and IRAs that we are currently required to allow.

Under EGTRRA, we may amend our plan to allow rollovers into our plan from 457(B), 403(B), and 401(k) plans in addition to the rollovers from other 401(a) plans are currently permitted to allow (we don’t currently allow rollovers into the plan).

The new $11,000 limits for 457(B), 403(B), and 401(k) plans don’t apply to our plan because the employer “picks up” mandatory employee contributions under 414(h), and our plan doesn’t allow elective employee contributions.
The same goes for the catch-up provisions and the new tax credit for elective contributions/deferrals to retirement plans--none of them apply to our plan.

There’s info at the IRS Employee Plans Corner site that may shed some light on the subject.

There’s a blurb near the top about the IRS Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 with links to Notice 2001-56 with guidance on the effective dates of certain EGTRRA provisions and Notice 2001-57, with sample EGTRRA plan amendments.

Almost everything will be optional (and may require new plan language to implement). The two exceptions are (1) the new tax rules--penalties on early distributions and new rules for the taxation of distributions--for 457(B) plans, and (2) the requirement that a plan transfer the amount of a distribution eligible for rollover to another plan at the participant's election. There's an outline available at my site, which you can see by clicking on this link.