THE Government has with immediate effect fused the Task Force on Corruption into the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in line with the National Anti-Corruption Policy, Vice-President George Kunda has said.

Mr Kunda said in a ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday that Cabinet agreed on Wednesday that the Task Force on Corruption would be transformed into a department in the ACC and all its cases would be taken over by the commission.

"The ACC shall take over all the criminal cases started by the Task Force on Corruption and continue with the investigations and prosecutions," he said.

He said that during the transition period, the Task Force on Corruption would be audited by the auditor general's office in the interest of transparency and accountability.

He said most of the civil cases started by the Task Force on Corruption had been taken over by the attorney general's chambers which shall continue representing the Government in civil cases.

He said sustaining operations of the Task Force and retaining private lawyers in Zambia and foreign countries had been costly to the Government.

At inception, the Task Force on Corruption was substantially financed by co-operating partners but along the way, they stopped and the Government had been funding the institution.

During the transition period, only one private prosecutor, Mutembo Nchito would be allowed to continue prosecuting some cases under the auspices of the ACC and his terms of engagement would continue to be reviewed.

He said the Task Force on Corruption was an adhoc institution established by late president Levy Mwanawasa to investigate and prosecute cases of national resources during the reign of second Republican president Frederick Chiluba.

He said the institution had substantially executed its mandate involving high profile cases where several assets had been recovered and most of its cases had been concluded or were pending in higher courts.

Mr Kunda said that the Government would build capacity in the ACC and create specialised departments that would deal with crimes such as fraud, financial crime, corruption and money laundering.

He said that in the case of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Government would create a National Prosecution Authority which would employ highly motivated lawyers to prosecute cases under the direction of the DPP.

With the improved conditions of service for lawyers, the Government would eventually stop relying on private lawyers in prosecuting cases.

He said that the Government was drafting legislation that would provide a legal framework within which the fight against corruption would be executed because there was need to fight the vice in a coherent manner.

And in response to MPs who wanted to know which institutions were fighting corruption for financial gain, Mr Kunda said that Transparency International Zambia obtained money from donors in the name of fighting corruption and ended up making allegations.

He said it was also common knowledge that some newspapers obtained a lot of money in the name of fighting corruption.