Dear Editor,

The Minister of National Security Senator Dwight Nelson must rescind the contracts awarded to funeral homes across the island for the removal and storage of bodies immediately, as it is creating an anomaly in the industry and severe hardships to the bereaved families as follows:

(1) The bereaved families are further traumatised in their time of grief

(2) Bodies are crossing parish boundaries for post-mortem examination/autopsy to be done when there are funeral homes in the parish where the death occurred. For example, bodies are taken from St Thomas to Portland, St Mary to St Ann, Manchester to St Elizabeth, Trelawny to Westmoreland, and in some instances from St Thomas to Spanish Town, St Catherine and from all parts of St Catherine, including Portmore to Linstead.

(3) The bereaved families have to bear the transportation cost to these locations to indentify their loved ones in order for a post-mortem to be done.

(4) Unfair competition is happening all around as the bereaved families are forced to abandon the funeral home of their choice due to the cost of removal of the body nearer to home.

(5) The government will actually expend more money in removal costs than previously.

(6) There is no one funeral home in any of the zones that are fully equipped to store bodies at the optimum temperature, but the paltry sum paid by the Ministry of National Security does not allow them to sub-contract, so bodies are turning up at the morgues for post-mortem in a state of decomposition.

(7) No provision was made for many of the original service providers who provided removal and storage whose tender documents were incomplete or who did not tender taking into consideration the fact that they were providing the service.

(8) The government could face lawsuits on account of grief and pain.

(9) No incentives are given to funeral homes in the form of waivers or concessions although at present they are actually “subsidising” the service.

(10) The funeral homes experience undue delays in the payment of bills by the government and are using statutory deductions, etc, as working capital, thus denying their employees access to benefits and are called upon to pay penalty and interest for late payment.

If the government were to establish a morgue, the reality of the situation would hit them as they would have to have a massive budget in order to provide the service. The government must act now before the funeral homes take drastic actions in order to survive in a time of recession with no stimulus package.

Joseph M Cornwall

Kingston