Leading Maori organisation The Iwi Chairs Forum has denied Winston Peters' claim it received $3 million to prepare an application to become a "commissioning agency" responsible for allocating millions of dollars in Whanau Ora funding.
But the forum's Sonny Tau has confirmed the forum has applied for the role for both the North and South Islands.
Mr Peters made the claim about funding yesterday, also saying the National Maori Health Council had received $500,000 to assist an application for further Whanau Ora money.
He said taxpayers' money was being used as "a slush fund to finance projects that help selected groups get their hands on even more money".
Te Puni Kokiri is currently running a process to appoint non-government organisations as commissioning agents who will allocate Whanau Ora funding to providers of health and social service providers.