Ghana’s economic crisis rooted in decades of reckless spending, not Covid – Finance Committee Chairman
Chairman of the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, has pinpointed decades of imprudent public spending and economic mismanagement as the primary drivers behind Ghana’s current economic turmoil.
In an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express, he emphasized that while the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have exacerbated the situation, they are not solely responsible for it.
Mr Kwarteng rejected the notion that without these global events, Ghana would have been immune to a financial crisis, asserting that the nation was inevitably heading towards such a predicament due to its unsustainable economic trajectory.
He stressed the urgent need for a shift in mindset towards fiscal responsibility to prevent Ghana from becoming a failed state.
“I am not with the school of thought that we were not going to experience a financial crisis but for these [Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine War].
“The country was always going to have some financial crisis. It might have been delayed a little bit if Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war had not happened but the fact remains that with the path we were walking, we were definitely going to get here,” he posited.
The MP highlighted a culture of overspending and a lack of fiscal discipline as pervasive issues deeply rooted in Ghana’s political and economic landscape. He expressed concern over the normalization of overruns and reckless expenditure, urging for a candid discussion and sustainable solutions to address these negative cultural practices.
“Overruns and reckless expenditure have become a culture,” he stated.
Despite existing laws and institutions aimed at curbing economic mismanagement, Mr Kwarteng noted their ineffectiveness in the face of entrenched cultural practices. He warned that no amount of legislation or institutional arrangements can deter a determined populace from self-destruction.
“We have the laws and we’ve set up institutions that should help us deal with these, but no amount of legislation, no amount of institutional arrangements can stop a people determined to destroy themselves,” he quipped.
