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In what can best pass for a direct response to assertions by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the government of Ghana had reached with the World Bank/IMF which will see government embark on a mass retrenchment of civil/public office staff strength, President John Dramani Mahama says his administration has not entered into an IMF programme as has been alleged by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). The NPP at a news conference, addressed by its National Chairman, Paul Afoko on Monday, declined the invitation to participate in the National Economic Forum which begun Thursday at Senchi near Akosombo in the Eastern Region, saying they have cited a supposed agreement that the government of Ghana had reached with the World Bank/IMF which will see government embark on a mass retrenchment of civil/public office staff strength. The NPP opines the downsizing exercise which is expected to take off in 2015, forms part of "home grown policies" government has already adopted and communicated to the IMF. But addressing the gathering to open the four-day forum which is under the theme: "Changing the narrative, building national concensus for economic and social transformation," President John Mahama stressed that as president, he has "not taken any decision to enter our country into an IMF programme." According to President Mahama, what the opposition party is bandying about is a "work in progress" document which will definitely be followed by broad-based consultations including the ongoing economic dialogue at Senchi. To him, the NPP's boycott of the forum meant to solicit ideas from participants to help in formulating new policies to prosecute the nation's developmental agenda was a "tragedy".