Following persistent efforts, detailed reports and recommendations formulated on the basis of corruption reporting mechanisms (notably OECD and Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption- GRECO), it is now under judgment in an Athens Labor Court, the first lawsuit of a whistleblower vs. his Employer, by virtue of the legal framework of the EU Civil Law Convention on corruption. However, despite the fact that Greece has ratified the International Conventions against corruption a long time ago, in the process, has demonstrated a persistent and willful failure to implement their intent, especially as related to the all important legal protection and rights of whistleblowers.

Never before we have had such as spectacular case of a whistle-blowing in our country that concerns thirteen consecutive years of ruthless retaliation, job harassment, demotion, humiliation and work degradation to a capable and of high quality worker. This unprecedented atrocity to a model and extremely capable member of the team reflects an appalling weakness of the local establishment and its obvious inability to get harmonized with the sophisticated and indispensable international legal framework concerning Whistle-blowing. This exceptional man in question has demonstrated great valor and has been in effect motivated by pure patriotism and belief in the nations' Constitution, in order to fight incompetence, corruption, cronyism and bribery. One man alone can make the difference and can be the inspiring example for his compatriots concerning the rules of a Democratic Society.

We are referring to Mr. Manolis Alifierakis, a Mechanical Engineer, and employee of the Public Power Corporation S.A. from 1986 till 24 January 2014, when he was notified about the termination of his employment, following an unjustified verdict of the company's Disciplinary Board, that it was communicated to him just four days before the hearing of the aforementioned trial. In the name of public interest, he has denounced the scandals of his employer PPC SA, which is a listed company on the Athens and the London Stock Exchange since 12/12/ 2001.

All his reports to the competent authorities were based on the anti-corruption legal framework based on International and European law. At this point the Board of the said Public Power Corporation S.A. is under investigation by virtue of the Greek anti-corruption law 4022/2011,concerning Corruption acts of political and public officials in cases of major social and public interest.

Furthermore, two former Ministers for Energy are involved in the economic scandals that Mr. Alifierakis reported, Mr. A. Tsochatzopoulos and Mr. G. Papakonstantinou. The former has been already sentenced to 20 years' incarceration for bribery and money laundering for his crimes as a Minister of Defense from 1996 to 2001, while the latter, who was the chief negotiator of Greece's first bail-out by the European Union and the IMF in 2010 will be tried on charges of falsifying documents and failing to carry out his duties during his term as Minister of Finance from October 2009 to June 2011....

The lack of implementation of the intent of the EU Directives and of Greek legislation concerning the Electricity Market of the Greek non-interconnected system; the levy of services of general interest contrary to the Commission Green Paper guidelines; the corrupt practices by PPC SA Management in order to prevent EVB Energy Solutions GmbH to participate in Tender ND-193 of PPC SA - Installation of Telemetering System for Major Low Voltage Customer Meters - Phase A - Budget € 33.500.000 and in fully deployment up to € 1.5 billion investment, by excluding market leading ECHELON technology from the tender; are among those reported by Mr. Alifierakis. Corruption, cronyism and bribery are common practices applied by the PPC SA management, which since the nineties have been expanded enormously.

Furthermore, employees who voiced their sincere concerns were overruled by supervisors and faced job harassment and ostracism. Mr. Alifierakis had warned in 2001, to no avail, about a pending huge industrial accident within the Linoperamata Power Plant, located in the island of Crete due to the incorrect fuel handling by a local contractor, with resultant complete failure of the rental Gas Turbine. That event however, marked the beginning of his thirteen years personal odyssey.

Finally, we sincerely trust that, in the long run the Greek Justice system will justify the remarkable, sincere, and dutiful Mr. Manolis Alifierakis. This is a man for all seasons. Thank you.