Canberra Cemeteries have defended sending surveys to hundreds of grieving families last year asking them to rate the cemetery on its customer service, weeks after they buried their loved ones.
Almost 400 families were sent the opt-out survey in the year to July 2016, the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate's annual report showed.
![Canberra Cemeteries have spent tens of thousands of dollars in the past decade sending surveys out to bereaved families.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180102124342im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/q/g/s/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtt3gi.png/1485130759273.jpg)
The five-question survey asked the recently bereaved to rank their satisfaction about the cemeteries' staff, services and presentation from one to five, then mail their responses - postage paid - to Central Coast community research firm Micromax.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, only about 4 per cent of surveys were returned.
![A screen grab of a 'post burial survey' on the Canberra Cemeteries website.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180102124342im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/t/z/q/d/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gtt3gi.png/1485082477469.jpg)
The year before, about 5 per cent of surveys elicited a response, a result that was called "unusually low" even for post-burial questionnaires.
"A low response rate is normal due to the very difficult emotional circumstances for families," the report said.
But despite the "difficult emotional circumstances", the authority persisted in sending out the questionnaires.
In fact, cemetery officials have sent the surveys out for the past nine years, at a cost of $3000 annually.
While the cemeteries are self-funded through the cost of burials, reservations and investment returns, only procurement over $5000 warrant scrutiny from the board.
The Canberra Liberals spokesman for urban services, Steve Doszpot, said he was concerned that family and loved ones asked to complete the survey could be "unnecessarily bothered by bureaucracy" at a difficult time.
But a spokesman for Canberra Cemeteries denied the survey was insensitive.
"Every major cemetery in Australia conducts a survey like this to gauge [its] performance and to generally ensure [it is] providing a quality service. Many funeral directors also conduct similar surveys," he said.
"The visitor satisfaction survey is opt-in only so only people who have expressed an interest in receiving the survey receive it. Of those who request a copy, only a small percentage respond. Of those who do respond, the responses are overwhelmingly positive.
Indeed, last year 90 per cent of the responses received were favourable.
But with such a low response rate, director of the Australian National University's Statistical Consulting Unit Professor Stephen Haslett said he hoped no major infrastructure or staffing decisions rested on it.
"WIth response rates that low, other options for gathering information should be explored in line with the purpose," Professor Haslett said.
"The information is too incomplete to make any major decisions."
Professor Robert Tanton of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling said while surveys looking to derive statistical information should not base their results on a response rate lower than 40 per cent, internal usage was fine.
"If it's not something that's being used for statistical purposes then it's not something I'd be too worried about. It's important to get that kind of feedback, as long as they're doing it sensitively," Professor Tanton said.
About a third of people who died in the ACT in 2015-16 were buried in one of the three cemeteries managed by the ACT government.
A report by ACT Auditor-General Maxine Cooper had found key errors in financial statements and confusion over maintenance costs, with perpetual care trusts as areas of concern.
However, in the auditor-general's most recent annual report, Dr Cooper said she was satisfied the authority's most recent financial statements were a fair representation of its financial position.
The financial statements showed 23 per cent of the authority's income in 2015-16 was reimbursement from perpetual care trusts however user charges made up the bulk of the authority's income.
Canberra Cemeteries made more than $2.1 million on allotment and reservation fees alone last year, a marked increase on the year before due to the opening of the new mausoleum wing at Woden.
The authority also gained almost $2.5 million from maintenance fees.