In a written parliamentary reply on Feb 3, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said that National Environment Agency (NEA) officers adhere to comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOPs) at government-owned after-death facilities such as the Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium Complex.

These include stringent checks of particulars and documents at each step of the cremation or burial process.

Despite the minister’s assurance, there was a mix-up at Mandai Crematorium Hall 4 on Feb 25 that affected two bereaved families.

According to a Feb 28 Shin Min Daily News report, the funeral services company engaged by one of the families had got the time wrong and had arranged for family members to arrive for a 12.05 pm cremation, more than two hours before its scheduled slot.

Despite this, a staff member of the company still managed to get the family and the casket into the hall. It was only after the actual family that had booked the 12.05pm slot had turned up that the mistake was discovered.

The cremation for this second family went ahead at around 12.40pm while the family whose funeral director had gotten the timing wrong had to wait some two hours.

NEA was quoted by Shin Min as saying that it took a serious view of the incident and was investigating.

As there has been no update since, could NEA shed more light on how the incident could have happened? 

Given that all applications for cremation at Mandai Crematorium and their timings are publicly available, and that checks are supposed to be done by NEA officers on the particulars of each body that arrived at the crematorium, how could the wrong casket be allowed into the hall?

Beyond the facts of this case, I would urge the NEA to also make public the checks undertaken at every stage of the cremation and post-cremation process — from the arrival of a casket/body outside an allocated memorial hall at Mandai to the entry of the casket/body into the hall and lastly to the front of the furnace, where family members can bid their loved ones farewell one last time. 

In November 2014, as a result of a mix-up by a staff at Mandai Crematorium, a deceased person was cremated at the wrong furnace, causing some distress to the bereaved family.

It is common knowledge that for cremation that takes place before 2pm, families can collect the remains of their loved ones on the same workday, and for cremation that takes place after 2pm, the earliest time this can be done is 8am the following day.

With this in mind, how does NEA ensure that a mix-up will not occur, especially when all cremated ashes are placed in identical translucent plastic boxes?

Would NEA also consider changing the present plastic boxes into receptacles that are more dignified?

Additionally, how many times will the same box be used before it is changed?

I, for one, would not want my parents’ remains to be mixed with the fragments of another person’s cremated remains. 

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