Zambia disbands anti-graft task force

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia has disbanded its anti-graft task force, even though Western donors have withheld $33 million in health aid after prosecutors said $5 million of it had been stolen.

Vice President George Kunda said late on Thursday the government would consolidate operations of the main Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) after disbanding the task force, which had become expensive to finance.

"The cabinet agreed on Wednesday that the task force on corruption would be transformed into a department in the ACC and all its cases will be taken over by the commission," Kunda said.

Some Western donors have withheld $33 million in aid to the Health Ministry after prosecutors said some senior officials had stolen $5 million from the health budget.

Lusaka professor of economics Oliver Saasa said the move would hurt Zambia's chances for getting more aid.

"It is a double edged sword with long-term effects of how much money donors will give Zambia, if we are seen to backtrack in the fight against corruption," Saasa told Reuters.

The anti-corruption task force was formed by the late president Levy Mwanawasa to investigate graft during the administration of former president Frederick Chiluba, which ended in 2001 after he served two five-year terms.

Donors have criticised a lower court's acquittal of Chiluba on charges of theft of $500,000 in public funds during his 10-year reign, which ended in 2001.

"The whole momentum of the fight against corruption was killed by (the failure to appeal) the high profile case involving Chiluba," Robert Sichinga, political analyst, said.

In 2007, British judge Peter Smith ordered Chiluba to pay $58 million to the Zambian Treasury to compensate for money he was suspected of stealing while in office.

The ruling, hailed as a turning point in Africa's battle against official corruption, was made in Britain where Zambian officials filed a civil case to try to recover properties and other assets owned by Chiluba and his associates in Britain and other European countries.