Illustrative photo – Director of the Lány Forest Service Miloš Balák (pictured left) and President Miloš Zeman.
Prague – The Lány Forest Administration will give half a million crowns for an educational film from a company run by an acquaintance of the former director of the administration, Miloš Balák. She awarded the contract to create a film for her forest pedagogy to the company Road Movies through a so-called closed call, so it was not published in the Tenders Gazette. The Seznam Správy server informed about it today. According to him, the contract was signed by the new head of the administration, Pavel Rus. Lány Forestry is a contribution organization of the Office of the President of the Republic.
Advertisement'; }
According to the signed contract, the order is for “production of educational films for forest pedagogy of the Lány Forest Administration” and the film is to be shot by Beatriz Šajmovičová, who originally started working on a feature film about the Lány forest administration. This film was supposed to cost around two million crowns and the author was to shoot it based on the book about Lány, which President Miloš Zeman baptized with Balák, the server said. He added that after the media reported about it, the contract was cancelled.
According to Ruse, the winner of the educational film contract was selected by a committee. How many creators the administration contacted, but did not say. He says he doesn't remember. According to him, the upcoming film is intended for the new museum of the forest administration, which could be visited, for example, by schools.
The server reported that Šajmović's husband, who is a co-owner of Road Movies, was paid 45,000 crowns last summer by Rus's predecessor Balák from public money for “the theme and synopsis of a feature-length feature documentary based on literary models.” According to the server, these were mainly the mentioned book about Lány. Rus rejected the feature film project, according to him, the administration does not need a feature film.
Rus replaced Balák as head of last year's forest administration, who resigned last October with effect from the end of 2022, at the beginning of this year. Balák was legally sentenced to three years in prison for influencing public contracts in Lánská obóra. However, President Miloš Zeman pardoned him and Balák remained in his position. Another court extrajudicially sentenced Balák to a fine of 870,000 crowns and a two-year ban on activities in organizations that manage state property in the case of stone mining in Lánské obora. The case will be dealt with by the Regional Court in Prague.
According to earlier information on the website, Balák received a record 410,000 crowns in rewards last year. During his nine-year tenure in Lánské obóra, he earned roughly 10.8 million crowns gross, including bonuses, according to the server, so he was paid better than deputies or judges. At the end of January, the newspaper N wrote that Balák remained in the forestry administration last year as a clerk. The new director, Rus, justified this by saying that he needs Balák to hand over the agenda to him for several months.
