State to audit tourism marketing agency
State officials have requested an audit of a Portland-based marketing agency that handles Maine's tourism advertising, after the company reported trouble paying its suppliers.
The Department of Economic and Community Development has asked the State's Controller's Office to audit Swardlick Marketing Group, after the president of the company, David Swardlick, notified DECD of its failure to pay certain media outlets for advertising services covered in its 2010 contract with the Maine Office of Tourism, according to a press release from Gov. Paul LePage's office. An impact on future advertising campaigns is not expected. In a statement on its website, Swardlick Marketing said, despite its difficulties maintaining payments to certain suppliers, there were no interruptions of any marketing programs related to the contract, and that "any amounts owed to third parties for which the company has received payment from the state are the responsibility of Swardlick Marketing Group and not the obligation of the state."
David Swardlick said the company would work with the state to help it understand the situation. "We have had a difficult time in the past few years aligning the costs of operations with our revenues during a very tough economic period," he said in the statement. Swardlick Marketing Group in September 2008 first won the Maine Office of Tourism contract, at that time a one-year contract worth an estimated $3.6 million.
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