DEPUTY Minister of Public Works Jeremy Cronin on Thursday defended the national government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), saying it was “a global leader” among other state work programmes around the world. However, he said to sustain a longer duration of programmes the infrastructure component of the EPWP would extend its focus to maintenance to provide longer stints for participants. This was in response to calls for longer participation periods in some projects and an increase in payment in others….more