A compliance review by Australia's election body has found "several issues" with the financial records of Greens Party-aligned think tank The Green Institute.
But the institute's executive director, and the party's Canberra federal candidate, Tim Hollo has defended himself against the findings, adding they were "technical errors" made on the basis of incorrect advice.
The Australian Electoral Review delivered its review into The Green Institute's 2019-20 return last month, which identified "several issues", including an under-reporting of gifts-in-kind.
The review found nearly $5000 in gifts-in-kind had not been reported. A disclosed grant-in-aid from the Department of Finance for the amount of $90,000 had also been $9,000 short.
Assistant electoral commissioner Joanne Reid's concluded the report was consistent with disclosure rules, following amendments made to the highlighted errors.
Mr Hollo said he welcomed the errors identified by the compliance review but felt it was not reflective of the whole story.
He said the $5000 in gifts-in-kind were related to unpaid rental costs to the ACT Greens and the Finance Department grant had been under-reported because they hadn't included GST in the final cost.
"What this proves is that AEC compliance can be complex, even for fully transparent organisations operating in good faith," he told The Canberra Times on Monday.
The electoral commission also found the institute had failed to include nearly $10,000 in debts in its return but Mr Hollo said it had been due contradictory advice surrounding the inclusion of paid leave as a liability.
Compliance reviews were important, Mr Hollo said, but a systemic overhaul was needed to ensure stronger transparency requirements.
"If there were greater transparency requirements for all associated entities, something the Greens have been calling for for over a decade, we wouldn't need to rely on compliance reviews," he said.
"Until we get systemic reform, the Greens would encourage the AEC to undertake compliance reviews on more entities to raise the bar for everyone, and it should be funded appropriately to do so."
