The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport on Monday announced that it is cooperating with relevant authorities to take legal action against those who claimed to be able to produce school and university certificates for a price.

The ministry said the provision of such services is an insult to the ministry.

The announcement came after an online sales account named Ty Hak posted on May 14 that it could produce all kinds of school certificates which would be accepted by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.

“The price of a Grade E high school certificate is $1,300, Grade D is $1,400 and Grade C is $1,500 – guaranteed to be usable and have a ministerial code number. The price for graduate certificates is $3,000 for all majors, except nursing,” the online post said.

The post was found on two popular online sale websites – Khmer24 and MyPhsar.

“Such posts are illegal – they violate the dignity and the efforts of the government and the reforms of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to upgrade the quality of education."

“It especially affects the spirit of hard work of Cambodian students,” said the ministry’s announcement.

The ministry regards the posting of such services as “fake news”. It said they would work hand-in-hand with the police to find those responsible and bring them to book.

It also appealed to the public to help prevent the spread of such posts and report to the police any information that is relevant to the case.

The ministry’s spokesperson Ros Soveacha said on Monday that it was working with the police to track down those responsible for the Ty Hak account. He said there were currently no leads in the case.