The CEO of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP), Stelios Stavridis, is to take over from Takis Athanasopoulos as the new head of Greece’s privatization agency.

It was announced on Monday that Stavridis, a qualified civil engineer and economist, would lead the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) – or TAIPED as it is known in Greece – after Athanasopoulos stepped down over the weekend.

Stavridis’s appointment has to be approved by Parliament’s institutions and transparency committee.

He will be replaced at EYDAP, one of the state-run enterprises the government wants to privatize, by Antonis Vartholomaios, an economist who served on the board of the privatization agency.

Athanasopoulos was one of three public officials who stepped down over the past three days due to an investigation into the former board of the Public Power Corporation.

The general secretary for industry at the Development Ministry, Spyros Efstathopoulos announced on Monday that he was quitting his position after charges of breach of duty were levelled against former managers at the Public Power Corporation.

Athanasopoulos, and the Finance Ministry's general secretary Giorgos Mergos resigned on Saturday.

Their resignations came after ex-PPC managers were charged on Friday for commissioning in 2007 the Aliveri power plant, which lost the company about 100 million euros.

Mergos, Athanasopoulos and Eftsthopoulos served on PPC's board at the time. The men said they were resigning for ethical reasons, pending the court case.

Christina Papaconstantinou, until now the general secretary of fiscal policy at the Finance Ministry, took over Mergos's position.