About us

In early 1990, he approached the Secretariat for Urban Planning, Construction and Housing Affairs of the Municipality of Subotica with a request for a permit to establish a communal funeral enterprise. (President of the Municipal Executive Council: Dragan Božinović.) The Municipal Secretariat rejected the request on 8 May 1990, citing that only a few months earlier (on 28 December 1989) the Communal Public Funeral Enterprise had been established to carry out that very same activity. (Signatory: Dragan Šelić, secretary.) (The defence of the state funeral enterprise's monopoly lasted a long time. Citizens paid dearly for it. For example, in 1992 the public enterprise raised the ten-year lease of a burial plot from 1,500 to 5,000, and the lease of a crypt from 2,000 to 6,000 dinars.) An appeal against the municipal decision was filed with the competent provincial secretariat on 17 May 1990. The appeal stated that under the Law on Enterprises, private companies with other forms of business were on an equal footing in the market. The provincial authority annulled the municipal decision on 8 June 1990 and returned it for reconsideration.

The question of Funero's establishment was reconsidered by the Subotica municipal secretariat on 13 August 1990 — and rejected once again. This again made it possible to appeal to the provincial level... (The authorities tenaciously defended the self-rule of the public enterprise. Market competition was not welcome, even though Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante Marković had by then already announced and was pursuing a world-oriented economic policy.) In the meantime, it had been possible to draw the attention of the Belgrade authorities to this case of Subotica's defence of monopoly (Prime Minister: Ante Marković; Minister of Industry and Mining was Subotica native Stevan Santo), so the government proposed, and the federal assembly accepted, an amendment to the Law on Enterprises, under which private enterprises could also carry out communal public services. This effectively "took" the decision-making power out of the hands of narrow-minded municipal authorities and transferred it to the jurisdiction of commercial courts. (Something similar happened, in a different form, 25 years later!)

Under file number fi. 1263/90, the District Court in Subotica registered the company Pogrebno preduzeće p. o. Funero Temetkezési Vállalat t. f. Subotica – Szabadka on 3 September 1990. Primary activity: 100 392 Funeral services, arrangement and maintenance of cemeteries. (Registrar judge: Ištvan Sakač.)

On 2 November 1990 (symbolically, on All Souls' Day itself), Funero's shop opened in Subotica at Karađorđev put 1 (the former Sadecki house). Activities: sale of funeral equipment, transport of the deceased, and funeral ceremonies. The traders and transporters of the deceased wore grey, tailor-made uniforms, white shirts and black ties, and uniformed caps. The ceremony masters wore modern black uniforms adorned with braided trim, white shirts and black ties, and white gloves. Everyone was required to work soberly and with reverence, and to be at the service of clients. Of course, everyone had to know the two languages of the region — Serbian/Croatian and Hungarian. Our prices were not much cheaper than those of other companies (nor were they later), but in terms of quality we represented a surprising novelty, which people quickly noticed and spread by word of mouth. Since the state funeral enterprise treated its clients rather casually (a result and consequence of decades of monopoly) and made no effort to accommodate them, more and more people chose Funero.

The Subotica Parish of Saint Teresa of Ávila — as owner of the church section of the Bajski cemetery — had until then been compelled to work with the state funeral enterprise. They were dissatisfied, both with the standard of funerals and with the maintenance of the cemetery (to be precise: burials were carried out, but nothing was done in the interest of maintaining the cemetery). The church authorities were glad to be rid of them. In November 1990, the Parish of Saint Teresa of Ávila entered into a contract (confirmed by the diocese on 11 November 1990) entrusting Funero fully with burials in its section of the cemetery, as well as its maintenance. For its part, Funero agreed to maintain the cemetery free of charge and to contribute to investment costs. In collaboration with the parish, work began on arranging and developing the church cemetery on Bajski put. Fifty trailers of rubbish were removed, regular grass mowing was introduced, the chapels were renovated, roads were built, the bell was reinstalled in the Peić chapel, new family vaults were constructed on what had previously been a clover field and in the open spaces between existing crypts (where rubbish had mostly been dumped), and we marked and regularly cleaned the waste disposal sites.

Of fundamental importance, and far more significant: we introduced a new, dignified funeral ceremony. Forty-five minutes before the funeral, four ceremony masters arrive, each presenting a flower to express condolences to the family, enquiring whether they have any requests, and setting quiet music playing, audible both inside the chapel (mortuary) and in front of it. We do not carry out a burial without a farewell even for those who have not invited a priest and where no one addresses those gathered. In such cases, a Funero employee delivers a brief, fitting farewell message — something that had not happened before. The ceremony masters wear black suits, caps and shoes, and work in white shirts and gloves. Each carefully observed the ceremony, sober, and was required to attend to his appearance: hair and beard neat, shaved that morning — not the night before — shoes clean, and suit tailor-made. We paid special attention to the care and arrangement of flowers. The "state" workers would break them, throw them aside — we respected the money spent on wreaths. Ceremony masters could hold only one wreath at a time, two bouquets at most. We did not receive flowers at the entrance; we waited for them to be brought in and only then took them over (so they would be visible to the family). The most important part was the arrangement on the grave or crypt: small bouquets were placed at the bottom, larger bouquets above, and wreaths only at the top. We paid special attention (based on the ribbons on the wreaths) to ensuring that the wreaths from the deceased's closer relatives were placed in more visible positions, and that the family's wreath was given the central place. Attending to form, we positioned the ribbons so they were not crumpled but could be read from the side. (Thanks to the improvements in quality, Funero soon gained the right to conduct burials — and partly the maintenance of cemeteries — at the church cemeteries in Horgoš and Bajmok, as well as at the church and state cemetery in Martonoš and the state cemetery in Male Pijace. The people of Subotica welcomed the quality improvements with satisfaction and increasingly requested that Funero conduct funerals — and that it bury their loved ones at other cemeteries as well.)

In December 1991, Funero approached the Public Communal Enterprise Pogrebno with a request that private funeral enterprises also be permitted to carry out funeral ceremonies at state cemeteries with their own ceremony masters (which were, it is true, in state ownership, but the right of use was held by this public enterprise).

The management board of the public enterprise Pogrebno rejected Funero's request in its entirety on 22 January 1992. On 24 February 1992, Funero approached the Assembly of the Municipality of Subotica with a request that it review the existing decision on burials and, in the interest of citizens, permit every funeral enterprise or entrepreneur to carry out the ceremony on equal terms — specifically: bringing the deceased out of the mortuary, and carrying in and arranging flowers. The public enterprise should retain as its monopoly: the actual burial, collection of fees for the lease of burial plots, maintenance of cemeteries, and the exclusive right to construct family vaults. The Subotica municipal government was in no hurry to address the matter. Citizens were turning to Funero with increasing trust, asking them to handle at least what they could — transportation and funeral accessories. At the same time, they were demanding the right to have Funero conduct the funeral ceremony.

In 1993, the Subotica municipal government (President of the Municipal Assembly: Jožef Kasa; President of the Executive Council: Imre Kern) chose a solution unique in the country at that time: it organisationally restructured the Public Communal Enterprise Pogrebno. (Later in our country "restructuring" became fashionable, but at the state level, Subotica was the first good example.) It was decided that the public interest was: every person should have a place for their eternal rest, there should be someone to take care of burials, fees for the lease of burial plots should be collected, and cemeteries should be maintained and developed. Let the public enterprise handle that. Everything else should be on a market basis.

Thus, from the former public enterprise, the Social Enterprise Urna was created, which carried out the same activities as private enterprises: sale of funeral equipment, transport, and ceremony. They did not start from scratch, as they received all necessary equipment, stock, vehicles, storage, uniforms, and specialists. (People accustomed to monopoly were unable to successfully copy Funero, although it would not have been difficult. So Urna failed, and during privatisation was sold for 790 dinars.) The Social Enterprise Kamenoresci was also spun off as a market participant. It too did not survive — it was privatised, then closed. (This means that cemeteries were poorly maintained because during the monopoly period, the funds intended for that purpose were used to subsidise other activities.) Funero set in motion a process that "shook up" even the public enterprise! They then followed its example: state cemeteries were also much better maintained, more than one employee with a fondness for drink was "taken out of circulation", and staff became more courteous toward clients...

From 1994 to 2011, burial services in Subotica were organisationally sound, reasonably priced, client-oriented and respectful — everything operated in the interest of consumers, both from the public enterprise and from private firms. Clients could freely choose (Funero, Urna, Corpus, Fiducija, etc.), and whichever funeral enterprise they approached, they could arrange everything in one place! Every funeral enterprise, in (telephone) agreement with the public enterprise, issued a burial order to the gravedigger and collected the fees — clients therefore did not need to go from place to place. The system functioned excellently for sixteen years, without a single failure or mistake on anyone's part! And most importantly: citizens were satisfied with the freedom of choice, the quality, and the prices.

On the basis of the existing situation and in accordance with the burial law in force at the time, the Assembly of the Municipality of Subotica adopted its own decision on burials on 26 June 1998. In it, it formalised and confirmed the already well-established good practice. The foundation of this was market competition (in quality and price), as well as equal standing for state enterprises and those operating on the basis of private capital. The monopoly remained only where it was truly necessary. Citizens who were spending their own money on funerals suffered no harm from this. All preconditions for quality funeral services had been put in place.

The state funeral enterprise in Subotica underwent a change of director (Vesna Prćić replaced Nikola Kvale), and from that moment on they made no effort to perform their activities better — instead, they constantly displayed envy toward private enterprises and attempted to ruin them. They wanted to restore their old monopoly (which they partially achieved in 2016).

In order to improve the quality of services, Funero built a modern, state-of-the-art refrigeration facility for the deceased in 2011, meeting all contemporary requirements.

On 30 December 2013, the Municipal Assembly (Mayor: Saša Vučinić) once again enabled the Public Communal Enterprise Pogrebno to engage in market activities alongside its monopoly (the activities that had previously been transferred to the enterprise Urna): sale of funeral equipment, transport, and funeral ceremony. From that moment, they did everything in their power to achieve a monopoly in every field, disregarding the interests of citizens.

First, they abolished the possibility for citizens to handle everything in one place, at whichever funeral enterprise they chose — burdening them with a needless trek from place to place. After that, they introduced new line items that made funerals more expensive by around 2,000 dinars (which they were required to annul under a decision of the Commission for the Protection of Competition). Numerous underhanded blows belong more to the history of Subotica's local government than to the history of Funero. The consequences have been felt, and continue to be felt, by the citizens of Subotica.

This is also an example of how something that was good for citizens and was working — largely from one day to the next, for party-political reasons — can be destroyed. The primary reason was the concealment of the state enterprise's poor performance, along with envy and hostility toward the private sector. Since then, a pointless squabble has persisted, in which the state funeral enterprise, backed by party-political support, seeks to ruin private entrepreneurs, while we strive to survive each of their misdeeds. We are the ones who, together with the citizens, suffer — but we do not surrender. We are fighting for what we have built over 25 years and what is a credit to Subotica.

On 31 March 2016, the Subotica municipal government (President of the Assembly: Ilija Maravić; Mayor who opposed the adoption of the decision: Jene Maglai), deliberately misinterpreting the law, adopted a scandalous and unlawful Decision on Burials and Cemeteries! With it, every conceivable and inconceivable monopoly was placed under the jurisdiction of the Public Communal Enterprise Pogrebno!

We address this in detail on our website. Two significant matters deserve special attention: private enterprises are being stripped of the ability to continue the task they had previously performed best — the funeral ceremony. The state sector was unable to withstand market competition in this area, and so from the coalition of the Serbian Progressive Party and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians they secured a monopoly for themselves!

The second is the state enterprise's gleeful exploitation of the runaround it has imposed on citizens! For the previous 25 years, citizens could arrange a funeral appointment by telephone. No longer! If they are buying from a private funeral enterprise, they must have all their paperwork ready at the moment of requesting the appointment and must go in person to the All-Powerful Pogrebno to get the appointment slot — and then back to the private funeral enterprise to complete the process and obtain the death certificate! (If the client chooses not a private but the state enterprise, then everything is possible: arrange the appointment by telephone, even without complete medical paperwork.) Breathtaking insolence — introduced and approved by the Subotica municipal government!

Organised by the funeral enterprises Funero, Corpus, and Urna, in April 2016, in the form of a Citizens' Initiative, thousands of Subotica citizens demanded and drew the city government's attention to the need to review its unlawful decision and bring it into compliance with the law. Instead of the legal minimum of 13,200 signatures, 15,100 Subotica voters signed the initiative.

(We write about this separately on our website.) The demand of Subotica's citizens has a legal basis: the Commission for the Protection of Competition, in reviewing the unlawful city decision, established that the local authority had included among the exclusive rights of the public enterprise activities that distort market competition and should not be carried out in the form of a monopoly. Their objections were listed in concrete detail. The arrogant local authority disregarded them.

The Subotica city assembly (Mayor: Bogdan Laban; President of the Assembly: Tivadar Bunford) did not take the Citizens' Initiative seriously, and at its session on 29 September 2016 (the last, 67th item on the agenda!) accepted only one or two minor, cosmetic amendments. The interests of citizens and the guarantee of lawful market competition were championed solely by the councillor group Citizens' Movement for Subotica – Jene Maglai (who also submitted a separate proposal to amend the Decision), but the remaining councillor groups (Serbian Progressive Party, Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Democratic Party with the Democratic Alliance of Croats of Vojvodina, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina) flatly rejected it. They voted for an unlawful monopoly and against the will of their own voters.

We are now in October 2016. Funero is still here — and will remain here. Instead of 19, we now have only 15 employees, and their number will continue to decrease, as some, seeing the situation, have left for abroad or are preparing to do so. You will be able to read about further developments in the protest section. And here too, if the Subotica municipal government, instead of party-political games, listens to the voices of citizens and voters and acts in their interest. Fortunately, the state government in Belgrade can see that on the road leading to the EU, it is market competition — not monopoly — that must deliver quality. Amendments to the Law on Communal Activities are being prepared, which will prevent local governments from abusing the question of burials. We hope the National Assembly will adopt them before the end of this year.