Zambia's Attorney General Mumba Malila said thedisbandment of the country's Task Force on Corruption will not impact corruptioncases currently before the courts.
Vice President George Kunda dissolved the TaskForce late last week and merged it into the country's Anti-CorruptionCommission.
Reuben Lifuka, president of TransparencyInternational Zambia, said the government hastilydisbanded the corruption Task Force.
"Wedon't think government has taken the prerequisite preparation for theAnti-Corruption Commission to take over the current corruption cases in courtas well as the investigation. As a result, we do have our fears as to whetherthere would be continued success for some of the cases that are still beforethe court of law," he said.
Lifukaexpressed doubt over Attorney-General Mumba Malila's comments that disbandingthe corruption task force would not affect cases currently before the courts.
"Ifyou recall, the task force was set up from the understanding that the Anti-CorruptionCommission (ACC) did not have the necessary technical and financial capacity tohandle the high-profile cases?now we are wondering how the ACC can still begiven responsibility for a task they initially they couldn't handle," Lifukasaid.
Some haveargued that the force was established specifically to go after corruption casesinvolving former President Frederick Chiluba.
But a Zambian court inAugust found the former president not guilty of embezzling $500 million.
Soon after, the Zambiangovernment refused to renew the contract of Task Force Chairman Maxwell Nkolo.
Lifuka said he sees aconnection between the acquittal of former President Chiluba and the disbandmentof the Task Force on Corruption.
"Immediately after theacquittal of former President Chiluba we have seen a push to have the taskforce disbanded. A lot of pro-government entities have been calling ongovernment to disband the task force, and within a period of less than a monththe government has responded with the disbanding of the task force," Lifukasaid.
He said TransparencyInternational Zambia wants to see the actual implementation plan for thegovernment's anti-corruption policy.