AUGUSTA – The state allowed Martignetti Co. of Massachusetts to amend its bid to buy the state’s wholesale liquor business three weeks after the bid deadline, a Maine company alleged Monday in announcing it would appeal the contract award.

Maine Liquors, known better as Pine State Trading Co. of Augusta, filed a letter Monday with the Baldacci administration asking for a halt to any contract negotiations until its appeal is heard.

Among a number of alleged errors, Pine State asserts that Martignetti was allowed to alter its bid after the bid deadline to include a transition plan that was critical to winning the bid.

“Given how much is at stake for the state as well as [the bidders] … we firmly believe that a stay is warranted while the errors in the bidding process are reviewed and corrected,” Pine State attorney Charles Dingham said Monday.

A third bidder, Maine Centric of Auburn, also plans to appeal the contract, according to one of the firm’s attorneys, Chris Howard of Portland.

Richard Thompson, the state’s former purchasing chief, who headed the panel that reviewed the bids, said Monday he thought it was appropriate for the other bidders to appeal the Martignetti award.

“The whole idea is for [the bidding process] to withstand the light of day,” Thompson said.

The bidders’ appeals are just the latest problem over the liquor bids for the Baldacci administration, which needs the money to fill a hole in the state budget.

Some state lawmakers claimed last week that Gov. John Baldacci promised not to give up the annual $26 million in profits to the General Fund in awarding the contract and then did just that.

Several Maine governors have wanted to get the state completely out of the liquor business, but not until Baldacci was the state willing to forgo the future revenue in order to get a quick infusion of cash to balance this year’s budget.

Thompson said Monday that the state didn’t allow Martignetti or the two other bidders to amend their original bids.

He said all three bidders were asked to bring a list of “talking points” to the interviews, but that no bidder was permitted to change the initial offer.

Pine State attorneys claim the state didn’t follow its own bidding rules for the liquor deal, thus breaking state law.

They are alleging that the Request for Proposal, or RFP, stipulated that the bids would receive preliminary scores, followed by final scores once all questions or clarifications were made to the proposals.

The Maine business claims that had the preliminary scoring been done and Martignetti not allowed to amend its bid, then Pine State would have been the winner.

Martignetti scored 95 points out of 100, while Pine State garnered 90.8.

The Pine State attorneys insist that the state’s own record of the bid process will show that the Massachusetts firm failed to include a plan for making a smooth transition from a public to a privately owned monopoly. The transition plan is part of the “quality of service” component of the bid which is worth 40 percent of the bidder’s score.

Pine State also alleges that Martignetti failed to meet the financial requirements set out in the RFP, which included a requirement that the bidders place a $5 million down payment with their bid, or secure a commitment from a bank that would pay the state the $5 million “on demand” should final negations break down and no one get the bid.

Thompson disagreed that state law requires state agencies to follow the process laid out in each RFP. He did concede, however, that the bids were not scored in the way bidders were told in the RFP.

“I won’t argue that it was different” from what the bidders were told in the official RFP, Thompson said.

A spokeswoman for Martignetti referred reporters’ questions to Kay Rand, most recently chief of staff to former Gov. Angus King and now a lobbyist for Martignetti and other firms.

Rand declined Monday to comment because of the appeal process.

“There’s a process we want to respect,” she said. “We don’t want to debate this in the press.”

The state’s effort to privatize the wholesale liquor business will bring a cash windfall to whoever eventually gets the bid. Martignetti, a family-owned liquor distributor, projected gross profits of $34.1 million in the first year of the 10-year contract, based on a projected 3 percent increase in sales.

The state now earns about $26 million in annual profits wholesaling hard liquor and other spirits. Under the Martignetti bid, the state would receive $125 million by June 30 and a share of the profits over the 10-year life of the contract – estimated at $25 million to $40 million.

Those profits are based on Martignetti’s projection of a 3 percent increase in sales each year for the next 10 years, rather than the industry’s prediction of 1.5 percent sales increases.

The state needs the $125 million soon to avoid a year-end budget deficit.

Pine State General Manager Nick Alberding said Monday that his family was “shocked” that the Massachusetts firm was awarded the contract. Both Martignetti and Pine State received 37 points for “quality of service” even though the Maine company claims to have submitted a superior service plan in its bid.

Alberding noted that not only does Pine State already distribute beer and wine to 96 percent of Maine’s agency liquor stores, but also the company is able to make the transition immediately from public to private – hiring 44 new employees along the way.

Martignetti, meanwhile, would add 17 new jobs, but would maintain the current system until July, according to Pine State’s appeal.

“My family was shocked that the state was sending this size business opportunity out of the state of Maine when they had a capable service provider right here in the city,” said Alberding, whose grandfather Charles Canning founded the company in 1940.

In addition to getting the same score as Martignetti on service – which the state considered the prime consideration for the contract award – Pine State also provided nearly 50 references, almost all from agency stores and suppliers in Maine.

Martignetti provided eight references, none of them from inside the state, according to Alberding.

“I certainly have hopes that the right people will take a look at this and rethink it,” he said.