Two civil affairs officials in Korla, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, were fired from their posts for fabricating marriage certificates, said the Korla government website.

Citing a lack of governmental funding, the city's civil affairs bureau made a deal with a private print house to produce 4,000 pairs of fake marriage certificates at cheap prices. They then issued them from 2008 to 2009, said a China News Service report.

The local government issued an official public apology on Monday, saying it will accept criticism and supervision from the public.

Ren Siqiang, former director of the bureau, and Li Zhilong, head of the bureau's social affairs office, were dismissed from their posts for violating rules of counterfeiting certificates on Tuesday.

Two other officials were also punished. The bureau's current director Mahmut Lahman received a warning and deputy director Zhang Xinli was suspended for not solving the problem in a timely manner.

The bureau said on Tuesday that it will send officials to replace the certificates for the couples involved, most of whom were registered from October 2008 to October 2009. The legitimacy of their marriages will not be affected by the counterfeit certificate scandal, it said.