The city's funeral homes got a blast from a concern group on funeral facilities on Thursday, as the group charged that funeral directors are making it too expensive to die in Hong Kong. The concern group blamed the soaring prices on the government's tendering system of outsourcing the city's only public funeral home intended for the low-income families to private contractors.

About 42,000 people die in Hong Kong every year. Only about 30 percent of them are afforded a mourning hall, where they may be honored by family and friends. Most families of the deceased can not afford the cost. Typically, when a person dies in Hong Kong, the remains are taken directly to a crematorium after being released by the hospital, leaving relatives no time to mourn.

The Concern Group on Funeral Facilities, together with Funeral Services Employees Association and lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing, met with officials from Food and Health Bureau, the authority which oversees tendering.

In 2002, the government decided to tender the only public funeral home, the Hung Hom Public Funeral Parlour, to private contractors on the grounds that usage of the facility was low. The Perpetual Funeral Parlour won the five-year-contract with a bid of HK$20 million. Last year, the Grand Peace Funeral Parlour, the current contractor for the public funeral home, won the bid with a sky-high tender of HK$278 million, 14 times higher than the original successful tender a little more than a decade ago.

"In order to make ends meet, the Grand Peace Funeral Parlour will have to charge at least HK$7,000 for each mourning hall," said Kong Chi-hung, chairman of the Funeral Services Employees Association.

Kong said the unprecedented tender price had triggered an increase in funeral home charges across the city. Following the latest round of bidding, some funeral homes - Universal Funeral Parlour, International Funeral Parlour, Diamond Hill Funeral Parlour and Kowloon Funeral Parlour - increased rates for mourning halls by 10 to 50 percent. For a mourning hall with the capacity of 40 people, Universal Funeral Parlours increased its rate from HK$3,300 to HK$5,500 per day.

Henry Chan, chairman of the concern group, said the government should reform its highest-bidder-rule and allow NGOs and social welfare groups, which are non-profit institutions, to enter the bidding.

Echoing Chan, legislator Wong said the government should set out some terms for the contract, including reserving a certain percentage of services for grassroots or low-income households who are unable to afford expensive funeral services.

"It is the right of the citizen to have a decent leave," said Wong.

Though the government offers a subsidy of HK$12,120 for social welfare recipients for funeral expenses, the subsidy barely covers basic cost, making it difficult for poor people to have a decent departure, added Wong.

Simon Ng, services development officer of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals - a charity group that owns two funeral homes, said 80 percent of service availability was already booked up for the coming two weeks. Tung Wah Group operates the International Funeral Parlour and the Diamond Hill Funeral Parlour.

Ng said the period before the Spring Festival is the busy season for funeral services. However, he acknowledged that among the seven funeral homes in the city, the utilization rate was only 70 percent on average. Ng confirmed it was very likely that the funeral homes run by the organization will increase their prices in the coming two months during its annual year-end price review.

The bureau, on the other hand, said it has requested in the contract that the Grand Peace Funeral Parlour should provide funeral services with a fee cap of no more than the government's subsidy to the cases transferred by the Social Welfare Department and Food and Health Bureau. It will also send inspectors to see if the conditions are meet every month.

stushadow@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 01/18/2013 page1)