By: GRAPHICONLINE
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has kicked against the government’s decision to engage with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) saying it is a ‘tragic mistake’ and ‘sad’ decision, that the government was seeking help from the fund.
The Secretary General of the TUC, Dr. Yaw Baah in a statement issued on Sunday said it believed that the conditions that come with an IMF programme will not help Ghana.
According to Dr Baah, Ghana has gone for an IMF programme for 17 times, but they all did not come with any better solutions to the economic issues for Ghana.
Therefore the government’s decision to finally ask for assistance from the IMF was a sad and tragic mistake.
The TUC argued that Ghana’s history of engagements with the IMF provided ample evidence that IMF sponsored programmes and policies could not change the country’s economic circumstances but only inflicted more hardships.
It said in the 4th Republic alone, the country had implemented five IMF programmes. “These IMF programmes have only imposed unnecessary hardships on Ghanaians with practically nothing to show for them.
The solutions proffered by the Fund are not appropriate for our economy. They scratch the edges of the problem without tackling the fundamental issues facing the economy.
“If we learn from history, we would know that countries that have succeeded economically such as South Korea, Singapore and China did not follow the neo liberal policies based on the Washington Consensus which provide the basis for all IMF-sponsored programme,” it said.
The TUC was of the opinion that the only reason a government would want to seek IMF bailout was to look for short term quick fix to the country’s perennial economic challenges.
It said the country had done this seventeen times and government had just announced the commencement of engagements for the eighteenth IMF-sponsored programme.
It said it was very certain that the 18th IMF programme would not solve our problems.
