The president of the recently established Hellenic Space Organization (ELDO), noted Greek-American space scientist and engineer Stamatios Krimigis, on Wednesday stepped down from the post with a particularly critical letter of resignation aimed at his political supervisors.
“Conditions are being created that undermine the three ‘As’,” as he said, using the first letter of the Greek words for “evaluation”, meritocracy” and “excellence”.
In a lengthy resignation letter, the former NASA project manager and principal investigator, takes aim directly at Minister Nikos Pappas, who holds the wordy digital policy, telecoms and information portfolio, as well as the general secretary of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission.
Among others, Krimigis said neophyte organization, a first for Greece, was wholly marginalized by a series of recent ministerial decisions transferring all of the entity's substantive responsibilities.
“I detected a clear intent to and an insistent persistence to promote actions without evaluation, without meritocracy, far removed from international models, ones that serve personal agendas and the full oversight of the general secretariat,” he wrote in his resignation letter.