A senior official at the Ministry of Interior has promised to fix technical problems that have slowed down the distribution of new identity cards and called on the public to complain if they are overcharged for the documents.

Chan Kemseng, deputy director of the General Department of Identification, said his office was offering new technical equipment to card issuers nationwide to speed up a process that has so far seen 6.5 million cards handed out.

But the problems were not all down to the government, he added.

“According to a recent study, old people don’t want the new cards because they don’t think they have that long left to live, and migrant workers do not want to go back to their birthplace to get one because they have to move from one place to another,” Kemseng said.

Young people, however, were keen to get a new card to help with job and academic applications, he added.

Responding to accusations that card issuers were charging more than the required 10,000 riel, he urged the public to note down the name of any misbehaving official, the location and time of any malpractice, and to report the wrongdoing to local authorities.