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A trade analyst, Nicholas Andoh, has blamed Ghana�s economic woes on bad negotiations by government, saying �bad negotiations have been the bane of the country�s ailing economy.� While he was against government going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic relief, he noted that the problem has always been leaders who go to these Bretton Woods institutions to negotiate on behalf of the country. Successive governments, the trade analyst explained, have been very economical with the truth about the country�s economy hence their inability to do good negotiations for the country anytime they come into contact with either the IMF or the World Bank. �What do you expect the IMF or the World Bank to tell us when we always massage our economic figures purposely for political expediency?� he queried. Mr. Andoh made these observations on Ghana, Great and Strong, a non-partisan programme broadcast every Saturday from 7:00 P.M.,� 8:00 P.M., on Ghana�s premier internet- based radio, www.hedjorleonlineradio.com in Accra. Contributing on implications for Ghana going to the IMF for a bailout, he decried the posture of governments on how every four years, thus in election year, government in power spends more money than its approved budget by Parliament. A case in point, he said, was what happened during the 2012 elections when the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC,) according to him, overspent its budget without recourse to laid down procedures. That, the trade expert said, was the reason why the country recorded high fiscal deficit, thus leading to an increase in the public wage bill. It would be recalled that about a month ago, President John Dramani Mahama directed his economic managers to open talks with the IMF to see how best the country�s ailing economy could be resuscitated. That announcement generated a heated debate in the country. While some people, especially members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP,) registered their resentment, others like members of the ruling party, held a different opinion. Sharing his thoughts on the topic on the programme, a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG) who is also a Fellow of Institute of Advanced Learning, Dr. Baah Boateng, said there is nothing wrong with Ghana going to the IMF. What the country lacked, the university lecturer added was its ability to do proper diagnoses of its problems. According to UG senior lecturer, the Bretton Wood institutions only give conditions based on how a country presents its problem. �The conditions by IMF for countries depend on how a country tells its economic story,� Dr. Baah stressed. Likening the situation with a patient who is seeking for treatment, he said, the way a patient describes his or her sickness is how a doctor will also prescribe a medicine for him or her. The economic reality on the ground, the Fellow of Institute of Advanced Learning said, is always not told hence always battling with IMF conditionalities. For his part, host of the programme, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, could not agree more with his panelists than to call on government to make judicious use of the country�s resources to the benefit of the country.