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 The foundation and its list of donors have been under intense
scrutiny in recent weeks. Republican critics say the foundation
makes Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination
in 2016, vulnerable to undue influence. Her campaign team calls
these claims "absurd conspiracy theories."
The charities' errors generally take the form of under-reporting or
over-reporting, by millions of dollars, donations from foreign
governments, or in other instances omitting to break out government
donations entirely when reporting revenue, the charities confirmed
to Reuters.
The errors, which have not been previously reported, appear on the
form 990s that all non-profit organizations must file annually with
the Internal Revenue Service to maintain their tax-exempt status. A
charity must show copies of the forms to anyone who wants to see
them to understand how the charity raises and spends money.
The unsettled numbers on the tax returns are not evidence of
wrongdoing but tend to undermine the 990s role as a form of public
accountability, experts in charity law and transparency advocates
interview told Reuters.
"If those numbers keep changing - well, actually, we spent this on
this, not that on that - it really defeats the purpose," said Bill
Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government
transparency advocacy group.
For three years in a row beginning in 2010, the Clinton Foundation
reported to the IRS that it received zero in funds from foreign and
U.S. governments, a dramatic fall-off from the tens of millions of
dollars in foreign government contributions reported in preceding
years.
Those entries were errors, according to the foundation: several
foreign governments continued to give tens of millions of dollars
toward the foundation's work on climate change and economic
development through this three-year period. Those governments were
identified on the foundation's annually updated donor list, along
with broad indications of how much each had cumulatively given since
they began donating.
FOUNDATION DEFENDS TRANSPARENCY
"We are prioritizing an external review to ensure the accuracy of
the 990s from 2010, 2011 and 2012 and expect to refile when the
review is completed," Craig Minassian, a foundation spokesman, said
in an email.
The decision to review the returns was made last month following
inquiries from Reuters, and the foundation has not ruled out
extending the review to tax returns extending back 15 or so years.
Minassian declined to comment on why the foundation had not included
the necessary break-down of government funding in its 990 forms. He
said it was rare to find an organization as transparent as the
foundation.
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"No charity is required to disclose their donors," he said.
"However, we voluntarily disclose our more than 300,000 donors and
post our audited financial statements on our website along with the
990s for anyone to see."
Separately, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the
foundation's flagship program, is refiling its form 990s for at
least two years, 2012 and 2013, CHAI spokeswoman Maura Daley said,
describing the incorrect government grant break-outs for those two
years as typographical errors.
CHAI, which is best known for providing cheaper drugs for tens of
thousands of people with HIV around the world, began filing separate
tax returns in 2010, and has previously refiled at least once both
its 2010 and 2011 form 990s. For both those years, CHAI said its
initial filings had over-reported government grants by more than
$100 million.
Some experts in charity law and taxes said it was not remarkable for
a charity to refile an erroneous return once in a while, but for a
large, global charity to refile three or four years in a row was
highly unusual.
"I've never seen amendment activity like that," said Bruce Hopkins,
a Kansas City lawyer who has specialized in charity law for more
than four decades, referring to the CHAI filings.
Clinton stepped down from the foundation's board of directors this
month but her husband, Bill Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea
Clinton, remain directors.
The foundation said last week after Hillary Clinton became a
candidate that it would continue to accept funding from foreign
governments, but only from six countries that are already supporting
ongoing projects. CHAI will also continue to receive foreign
government funding, again with additional restrictions.
Nick Merrill, Clinton's spokesman, has declined to answer inquiries
about the foundation and CHAI.
(Additional reporting by David Ingram, editing by Ross Colvin)
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