marriage.jpg (Photo : www.fdc.com.cn)
A Civil Affairs Bureau in Xinjiang Province had allegedly issued hundreds of fake marriage certificates for over a year, impacting thousands of couples. The surprising revelation would have never seen the light of day if it was not for one couple’s quest to buy an apartment.
On Dec. 22, the couple from the Xinjiang city of Korla applied for a loan to buy an apartment. The loan application required a copy of their marriage certificate. However, when the bank made a scan of the certificate, the scanned copy revealed that the certificate was fake and that the loan application would be denied.
An unnamed official from the Korla Civil Affairs Bureau told reporters that because of a lack of funds the bureau had been forced to print their own unauthorized certificates to keep the costs low. The only problem is that a scan of the self-printed certificates would show that they were fake. According to the official, this went on for half a year.
An investigation into the matter shows that between October 2008 and October 2009, approximately 4,000 marriage certificates that did not comply with state regulations had been printed by the city’s Civil Affairs Bureau. City government officials expressed their regret for the situation and promised that further investigations would take place and that all responsible persons would be held accountable.
Reports also show that the city government website has ordered replacement marriage certificates to be issued immediately and free of charge to any couple that was issued a fake license within the October 2008 to October 2009 period.
Korla, however, was not the only place found with fake marriage certificate issues. Fake certificates were also issued by the Maneisi County Civil Affairs Bureau. Indeed, investigations found that from 2004 to 2006, the bureau had printed about 1,000 fake marriage certificates, 500 of which had been issued to couples while the remaining 500 had been destroyed. The bureau had issued a public service announcement informing residents to check their certificates and explaining that the bureau would replace for free any found to be fake.
According to the registrar of Maneisi County Civil Affairs Bureau, some people have already registered and received their replacement marriage certificates.
