Fiscal responsibility legal framework: New paradigm for fiscal discipline during elections in Ghana?

What is it about?

Ghana has suffered from large fiscal volatility for the past three decades. This volatility has beenidentified as one of the key challenges to her development. This study was based on the presuppositionthat Ghana’s democracy since 1993 continue to witness a trend whereby various governments havefailed to maintain fiscal discipline during election years. This paper however, sought to examine theextent to which the newly set up fiscal council, the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921)and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2018 (Act 982) have corrected this trend. The study however,revealed that notwithstanding the various control mechanisms put in place, financial discipline andsustainability have rarely been achieved. The study recommends a strong sanctioning regime and theconsolidation of independent fiscal institutions.

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