Kwaku Kwarteng, the Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, and Member of parliament for Obuasi West in the Ashanti region, has disagreed with government communicators that Ghana’s economic challenges are largely to blame on global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Obuasi West MP lawmaker attributed Ghana’s economic quagmire to the reckless public spending and economic mismanagement of previous and present governments.

The Civil engineer, economist and politician dismissed the excuse that without these global crises, Ghana would have been spared the financial downturn it is currently experiencing.

He said, “I am not with the school of thought that we were not going to experience a financial crisis but for COVID-19 and the 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.”

Mr. Kwarteng, therefore, highlighted the urgent need for a shift in mindset towards fiscal responsibility to avoid Ghana from descending into further economic catastrophe.

He added that the ineffectiveness of existing laws and institutions in addressing economic mismanagement, emphasizing that without a collective commitment to change, these measures alone are insufficient to make an impact toward recovery.

“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.”