SAYING failure to change the operations of both the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) and the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) would mean government being complicit in crime, Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge says these changes will save lives.

Speaking on the evening of July 29 at a constituency public consultation on the budget and stand-your-ground legislation, at the Sangre Grande Civic Centre, Sturge said had these two programmes been run properly, and in keeping with its true mandate of assisting the poorest and most vulnerable in society, "then both PNM and UNC could eat."

He said the operation of ghost gangs which have been paid millions of dollars over the years meant only a few had benefited from these two programmes.