Prague, July 22 (CTK) – The Czech Foreign Ministry has put up a new, repeated tender for filling the post of general director of the Czech Centres network abroad, since no winner emerged from the previous tender earlier this year.
The deadline for the first tender’s applicants to submit their bids was the end of May, but no new head of the 22-branch network was chosen.
The ministry has placed a new advertisement on its website this week. The applicants can submit their bids until the end of August.
The previous Czech Centres general director, Jiri Zavesicky, was dismissed at the beginning of April over discords concerning the Czech Centre in Paris.
Zavesicky refused to fill the post of the centre’s head with Jean-Gaspard Palenicek, who won a competition for it. This annoyed a part of the French cultural and academic circles who are close to Palenicek.
In reaction to a French complaint, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek dealt with the issue and sacked Zavesicky over a managerial failure.
Like the whole Czech Centres network, the Paris branch remains without a head. The deadline for applicants in a Paris tender expired on Thursday.
The role of the Czech Centres is to promote Czech culture abroad. They organise language courses, exhibitions, concerts and film screenings. They mediate international contacts for artists and related branches such as creative industry, promote the Czech Republic in the areas of trade and tourism, and support Czech science, economic relations and pro-export policy.
