Former APNU+AFC legislator gives PPPC ‘B’ passing grade

Former A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) legislator Audwin
Rutherford has given the one-year-old Irfaan Ally administration a passing grade on the
anniversary of winning the bitter 2020 polls.
Rutherford told www.aroundtheregions.com in an exclusive that the Peoples Progressive Party
Civic (PPP/C) coalition deserves a ‘B’ for its performance over the past 12 months.
The former member of parliament (MP) singled out the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant’;
securing vaccines to fight the highly-contagious and deadly corona virus disease; reopening of
several estates in GUYSUCO; and distribution of financial grants to households as relief in the
fight against COVID as major accomplishments for the PPP in the first year.
“They have responded to a main promise for education and for the sugar industry. Those are
difficult things to quickly respond and the government had responded to in a timely manner,”
said the former MP.
For Rutherford, the execution of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant is one of the greatest
accomplishments by the Ally administration to date, irrespective of one’s political and or social
affiliations.
The Irfaan Ally administration has set aside some G$3.2B (approx.US$6M) for the national
scheme gifting each student across the country $15,000 plus $4,000 in cash as School Uniform
and Supplies Grant. The government also announced plans for annual incremental increases to
the two elements of the ‘Because We Care’ novelty until it reaches $50,000. The School
Uniform and Supplies Grant has doubled from $2000 last year to $4000 this year.
Under the multi-billion-dollar initiative all public-school students are slated to benefit from the
government’s largess. Rutherford said he agrees with James Bond, a former APNU legislator
that the novelty should be commended and, by extension, the government.
“You made a decision to give each child, not a home but each child $19,000.00 and you could
have seen the response from the parents who would understand that is a decision that the people
of Guyana would have said yes to. Several of them may not have voted for the government but

they certainly supported the government’s cash grant initiative. What was also critical was the
response by the government to COVID and the injection of the $25,000 for every household. I
have not done a (scientific) survey to ascertain who got and who didn’t, but what I know that lots
of money was given and that money has certainly propelled the economy,” Rutherford said in the
interview
“A roadside vendor in my view would have collected a dollar from that money so it was
important. It wasn’t left in some bank or something but it was taken from the state coffers to
ensure that each and every person benefits, or an attempt was made for each and every person to
benefit somewhat. So, for me, I would say that the PPPC government secured a solid B from me
with regards to their first year in office,” the one-time legislator explained
Under a year’s long intense pressure since it was returned to government, the PPPC under
Ally, has delivered, despite relentless, sustained criticisms from the APNU+AFC, their
principal political rivals, Rutherford said.