Fu Shan and Kwai Chung crematoriums will be run by Electrical & Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) from January 2007.

The operations have not been outsourced to the private sector, Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food York Chow said yesterday, and the surplus staff of the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will be transferred to other posts.

But legislator Wong Kwok-hing said Chow was being misled by his subordinates.

Speaking in the Legislative Council (LegCo), Wong cited two crematorium workers from the FEHD as witnesses to allege that a private company had been hired to operate the crematorium. Its staff have been understudying the operations there since December 1, he said.

The FEHD staff who revealed the matter to the public at a press conference last month have been transferred, he alleged.

Answering a question from Wong, Chow said that since "new type of cremators" would be used, EMSD technicians would be re-posted for the operation as well as maintenance work.

As the new cremators have three chambers, transferring of bodies or bones from one chamber to another would be controlled by computers to be monitored by crematorium personnel.

"The employees will have to ensure that no bones are left in that chamber before handling another body or skeleton," he said. Thus, "mixing of bones (or ashes) will not take place."

But Wong was not happy with the answer.

So he called two FEHD staff outside the LegCo Building to rebut Chow's version.

According to one of the workers, Lee Pui-yui, operations of his crematorium has been outsourced, and the hired company's staff have been understudying the job.