Kwaku Kwarteng, the Chairman of the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, has attributed Ghana’s current economic crisis to decades of reckless public expenditure and economic mismanagement.
While acknowledging the adverse impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Kwarteng rejected the notion that these global events were the sole cause of the crisis.
“I am not of the school of thought that we would not have experienced a financial crisis but for Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. The country was always going to face 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 on, we were definitely going to get here,” he remarked during an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express.
Highlighting a pervasive culture of overspending and a lack of fiscal discipline, Kwarteng noted that Ghana’s current predicament is the result of decades of bad politics and economic mismanagement.
“Overruns and reckless expenditure have become a culture,” he expressed concern, emphasizing the need for a fundamental change in mindset and a commitment to fiscal responsibility to prevent Ghana from becoming a failed state.
He called for an honest and straightforward discussion about these negative cultural practices and stressed the importance of finding sustainable solutions to address them.
Kwarteng observed that due to the pervasiveness of these negative cultural practices, laws and institutions established to combat economic mismanagement often prove ineffective.
“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 remarked.
Kwarteng’s remarks come at a critical time as Ghana grapples with external shocks and domestic economic vulnerabilities, including skyrocketing inflation rates and high unemployment rates.