03.07.10
Problems and State Audit Issues
Over the weekend, Mississippi has news coming out about cemetery merchandise and service funds being misapropriated. These news items, as stated many times before, can do nothing but harm the death care industry consumer faith and give ammunition to those special groups that would like to see the death care industry fail.
Never covered in any of these news accounts or blogs, is the simple poor method of performing audits at the company or state level, and the lack of tools/training invested in these groups. The auditors are simply accoutants hired to look over documentation requested, usually a percentage of contracts and burial records from the previous year, then those findings are put against accounting records from a home office or accounting firm. This is hardly the type audit necessary to discover anything beyond “surface” issues.
The set up for a cemetery or funeral home or crematory inspection or audit is where the problem begins. Days or weeks in advance the location is notified of a pending audit. With that notification, there are items marked to have ready for the auditor. The auditor comes in, looks over those items pulled for inspection and if nothing seems out of order that is the end of the audit. Too many times, in the few states that actually perform inspections of crematories, the inspector doesn’t want to pry. If a crematory is presently in use, the inspector schedules another day to come back. This is a bad mistake.
In the cemetery or funeral audit, the inspector has precious little time to commit to one location. These state agencies are historically understaffed and under funded, and have many more locations to cover than people to cover them. The agency they work for has to watch their budgets very closely, as they come from the general fund of the state. These agencies can be trained properly to become self supporting, which would also afford them better training and tools; but this is a tough sell when old ways are hard to break. Or the states need to consider privatizing the audit/inspection capacities. Privatization would cost them less, and gain them much better control over issues present. Privatization would also raise accountabilities and reduce the desire or ability to misapropriate funds or manage poorly.
Here’s wishing for a time when everyone cares to do things right every time on both sides of this issue. Here’s wishing for a time when both sides will open their minds to better methods and accountabilities. http://www.cemops.com
carolmotley said,
March 27, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I have become a cheerleader for natural burials and refuse to refer to them as ‘green burials’. To me, this really does denote a fad -but as I explain to everyone, a natural burial isn’t something I made up, it’s been the number one method of disposal for thousands and thousands of years. Out of all the absurd questions I am constantly asked, I finally have to say -Look, this is Orthodox Jewish Law fora burial -ashes to ashes, dust to dust, earth to earth. If there was something really bad wrong with it, or a big problem with it, don’t you think the Jewish people would have figured out by now another way to do it? They are an efficient group of folks -they don’t seem to have a complaint what so ever since it’s so widely practiced.
As for the dirt crushing the body, hmmm -sounds like a stretch for a real problem, but to you it is. For me, the amount of steel and concrete we are loading into our earth is hideous and downright wrong as well as the amount of gas used to mow around the dang monuments. Most natural burial places have GPS (we do in Asheville, NC) set up. It’s a fact that three generations later, very few people are coming to your grave -it’s actually a bit of the ole Ozymandias (Shelley) attitude. Most of the folks I have buried in the natural burial grounds have been earthy types, frugal minded or religious inspired to follow through with a natural burial. It loosens the common restraints since it is a wooded area and reminds everyone that the cycle of life is all to common, everywhere we look. We have had Mariachi bands, harp players and ipods blasting Bob Marley. We have buried plain pine boxes, painted cardboard boxes and gorgeous shrouds hand sewn by a co-op of ladies laid off from Victoria’s Secret. Like organic food in the late eighties, it might seem faddish -but like organic food now, it will become more and more common.
I too doubt the ‘green’ embalming fluid.
And as for the mowing, we hire goats twice a year to eat up all the kudzu and poison oak in the natural burial grounds!
ncnaturalburial.com
Administrator said,
March 27, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Thank you Carol for the comment. Obviously, we are all from different places and your points are well taken. The crushing of the body is a personal issue, I would not like that for my loved ones. Another thought, which is heavily debated, is the possibility of ground water contamination, and with the body being crushed wouldn’t this expedite the process? In the many studies I have read, certain biological mechanisms can be harmful decades later. The World Health Organization covers this extensively in their research, and where I do believe it to be a stretch at times, it is hard to discount them completely. Especially where well water is the only source, untreated. I have researched the green embalming fluids, and this is considered a figment of an embalmers imagination. He is actually selling this to the public in his town in Kentucky. I guess every end of the industry has its’ dishonest types. Why not green burials too? I am also familiar with the Jewish traditions of burial which are not unlike Muslim burials. The Jewish use a pine casket, and the Muslims use ceremonial cloth wrapped around the body. One part of my concern that you did not address: With little or no revenue streams available to insure the longevity of the cemetery, what happens when nobody can be buried there any longer because the cemetery goes broke? How are the families assured this will be an active place of burial 50 to 100 years from now? And as a cemeterian, one possible concern is: What if for some presently unforseen reason, the bodies have to be relocated down the road? You may believe this to be out of the question or completely out there, but I have moved many a burial in the way of progress. No vault or casket, and the dig becomes extremely labor intensive and costly due the sheer time it will take to locate and remove the remains in the soil. And exposures to reoxygenated pathogens has to be considered at that point.
I enjoyed your comment. Again, thank you for the different point of view.