NY Promotions Offices Spent Big, Drew in Little

ALBANY (AP) —

New York’s 10 state offices abroad showed limited results boosting exports and investment over two years despite receiving nearly $3 million in funding, auditors reported Monday.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, whose office conducted the audit, called for the Empire State Development Corp. to set clear performance standards to determine how its few remaining foreign offices are doing now that most have been closed.

The corporation paid $2.7 million to seven foreign representatives for offices in 10 countries from April 2010 through March 2012, the audit report said. Because of budget constraints, it had recently closed offices in Mexico, Turkey, China, Australia, Brazil and Chile. That left New York representatives only in Britain, Canada, Israel and South Africa.

While some offices didn’t meet expected results, they found others with few recorded results. The Toronto office projected $1.2 million in export sales, but reported only $175,000 in actual sales. The Turkey office reported no sales.

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