The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has kicked against calls for the government to go to the International Monetary Fund for an economic programme to revive the economy.

According to the Director of Research, Dr. Kwabena Nyarku Otoo, the continuous assistance from the IMF has not helped the country and therefore it’s high time the nation abandon any economic programme from the Fund.

Speaking at a recent forum organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr. Otoo said, it will be suicidal for the government to run to the IMF, knowing the consequences that will befall the nation

“We found a kind of “ponzi game” developing between Ghana and the IMF for all the 16 times we have run to them”.

For that matter Dr. Otoo explained that “for us in Labour, we are ideologically opposed to Ghana going to the IMF due to the large scale retrenchments in the public and private sectors constituting a reduction of 10% of wage labour in Ghana”.

He continued that “we’ve gone to the IMF 16 times and ended up in the same difficulty. So, I wonder why people should think that time is ripe for us to go to the IMF.”

“In fact, it will amount to doing the same thing”, he added.

Government has since independence gone to the IMF 16 times.