The federal government handed tens of millions of dollars to Coalition seats through community development sports grants, an analysis by the Greens has found.

Coalition seats received three-quarters of the $45m in sports grants allocated by the Morrison government, with a specific focus on marginal seats.

The revelations come as a Senate inquiry into the $100m community sport infrastructure grant program resumes on Thursday, with the Greens highlighting the unequal distribution of a separate $45m fund.

Greens sports spokeswoman, Janet Rice, said it was a “travesty” that the Coalition “organised a separate program worth $45m in which almost all the money went to Coalition seats, and marginal seats they were desperate to win in last year’s election”.

“You shouldn’t have to live in a marginal seat to get a fair go at these programs that are supposed to be based on merit,” she told Guardian Australia.

The community development grants program was originally overseen by the infrastructure department, but oversight was transferred to the health department.

In answers to questions on notice, received on Thursday, the health department identified 125 community development sports grants transferred into its oversight worth $45.31m.

The Greens analysis found that 97 of the 125 projects to receive funding are in marginal seats, or 78%, with a total of $36.6m spent in marginal seats (80% by value). Coalition seats received 75% of the number of grants, or 70% by grant value.

Of the 31 non-Coalition seats that received community development sports grants, all but one was located in a marginal seat.

Funding was delivered to recipients selected through Coalition election commitments without an open, competitive process.

The community development grant guidelines state the grants deliver on election commitments and “only projects identified by the Australian government will be considered for this grant opportunity”. Other applications will not be accepted, it said.

“The Department of Health considers that this is an appropriate type of selection process considering the nature of the grant is one-off.”

A further $150m was spent on sports grants through the female facilities and water safety stream, which also funded projects selected as election commitments without a competitive process.

In January, a scathing auditor general’s report found former sports minister Bridget McKenzie had skewed the community sport infrastructure grant program towards key marginal seats.

Rice said the Greens’ level playing field bill “would provide funding to clubs that missed out under the original sports rorts program – we call on the Coalition to apologise to Australians, and do the right thing by supporting our bill.”

“And I call on the government to support our proposed inquiry, that would open up all their grants programs to scrutiny, that will be voted on in the Senate next week,” she added.

A spokesman for the sports minister, Richard Colbeck, said the community development program “is the delivery mechanism for a number of the government’s election commitments”.

“The Labor party, which put aside more than $250 million for sporting election commitments in their 2019 election costings, would have had to use a similar delivery mechanism if the Australian people voted them into office,” he said.

McKenzie resigned from the ministry in February over a conflict of interest – a membership in one of the clubs that received funding under the CSIG program – but has consistently denied wrongdoing.

McKenzie argues she retained a discretion to override Sport Australia’s decisions according to the program guidelines and was not improperly influenced by whether projects were located in marginal or target seats.

The Beechworth tennis club, represented by Maurice Blackburn, has challenged the legality of the CSIG program in the federal court.