AUGUSTA (AP) – State officials, citing changed requirements and “procedural anomalies in the procurement process,” plan to undertake a new round of bid solicitations, starting this weekend, for Maine lottery advertising and marketing.

The decision to rebid, outlined in a June 30 memorandum from the state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations, means that the lottery’s contractor for the last three years, NL Partners of Portland, which had been tentatively designated as the new contract winner, would have to compete again to retain the lottery business.

In the initial round of bidding for a three-year award, NL Partners outscored Pan Atlantic Communications, LLC, of Portland, and Alpha Marketing Inc. of Ellsworth, officials said.

As part of its overall response to a state request for proposal, NL Partners had underbid Pan Atlantic and Alpha Marketing, $946,500 to $1,271,388 and $1,308,050 respectively, state documents show.

Explaining the reasoning behind the decision to rebid, bureau Director Pam Coutts wrote last month that “the conditional award of the contract did not pass the state purchases review committee process.”

In part, she noted that “the Legislature recently enacted enabling legislation for Powerball, but that advertising and public relations services for Powerball were not included in the RFP.”

Commissioner Rebecca Wyke of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services said there was also a technical question about how the designation of a winning bidder was made, specifically concerning at what stage of the process the state liquor and lottery commission should have been involved.

Maine enters the multistate lottery on July 30. The state has booked nearly $8.9 million in General Fund revenue from the game for fiscal 2005.

A dispute over a state contract award for the privatization of the state wholesale liquor business was essentially resolved in May.

State officials announced that Martignetti Companies, which will manage the business, and Pine State Trading Company of Augusta, which will operate the network’s warehouse and oversee product distribution to nearly 300 agency liquor stores, would become minority owners in partnership with Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer, a private equity investment firm.

A basic bidding price of $125 million was set by the state.