Ex­ec­u­tive chair­man of Citadel Ltd, Louis Lee Sing is call­ing for the re­place­ment of un­em­ploy­ment re­lief pro­grammes such as Com­mu­ni­ty-based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (Cepep) with the Com­pul­so­ry Na­tion­al Ser­vice. Lee Sing made the call dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion at the one-day sym­po­sium ti­tled 'A case for Com­pul­so­ry Na­tion­al Ser­vice' at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

He said, "Pro­grammes like Cepep and URP have not made any sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to T&T. It pro­vides no re­al mean­ing to the coun­try." He added that he was mak­ing a pro­pos­al to the Gov­ern­ment that funds from these pro­grammes be di­vert­ed to the com­pul­so­ry na­tion­al ser­vice pro­grammes. Lee Sing said this new ser­vice would be tar­get­ing men be­tween the ages of 15 and 25 who were un­em­ployed and not at school.