The gov­ern­ment of Zam­bia has dis­banded an anti-corruption task force say­ing it’s was too expen­sive to maintain.

Experts say that scrap­ping the anti-corruption efforts will cost the coun­try in aid. Already, 33 mil­lion dol­lars have been with­held from donors. The with­hold­ing stems from charges of 5 mil­lion dol­lars being stolen from the health depart­ment by gov­ern­ment officials.

From Reuters, we read more about the strange deci­sion from Zambia.

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.

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