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The allocation of public columbarium niches has been enhanced through a monthly system after the Office of the Ombudsman investigated complaints of wait times lasting up to nine months.
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The new arrangement was announced as Ombudsman Jack Chan Jick-chi presented 19 recommendations for improvement to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).
The watchdog commended the FEHD for its pragmatic and responsive approach in adopting the recommendation to conduct allocation exercises monthly rather than annually.
However, while a pilot program for the monthly allocation of niches at the Tsang Tsui Columbarium was introduced in 2020, the FEHD did not extend the practice to other public columbaria until the watchdog recommended it in 2025.
In hindsight, if the FEHD had expanded the program earlier, the public inconvenience of waiting for annual allocations could have been avoided and the distribution of valuable public niches would have been expedited, Chan noted.
The investigation also revealed that the FEHD's system can process qualified online applications with automatic approval within one day compared with an average of 50 days to process applications submitted on paper or email.
The Office noted that over 20 percent of applications were submitted by email or on paper last year, suggesting that many applicants are unaware they can receive automatic approval online.
Chan advised the FEHD to step up its promotional efforts targeting both the public and the funeral industry, while also reviewing ways to further simplify administrative procedures and boost efficiency.
The watchdog also noted some information overlaps between the FEHD website and the "After Death Arrangements" thematic platform, resulting in inconsistent content and wording.
It advised the FEHD to align and consolidate the content across both websites to maintain consistency and improve the clarity.
