No environment department officials were present at a meeting in which the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, discussed a plan that led to a $443.8m grant to a small Great Barrier Reef charity.

The charity, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, has also confirmed that its founders were wealthy businessmen and philanthropists with links to the resources industry, and one was a senior public servant in the Bjelke-Petersen government.

In hearings this week for a Senate inquiry examining how the foundation came to be awarded the funds, its managing director, Anna Marsden, said the foundation’s chairman, John Schubert, was informed there would be a budget allocation at a 9 April meeting with Turnbull, Frydenberg and the secretary of the Environment and Energy Department, Finn Pratt.

But in a letter to the inquiry’s committee, Marsden has corrected her statement to say Pratt was not present.

“In the hearing I stated that the secretary of the Department of Environment and Energy, Mr Finn Pratt, attended the meeting with our chair on 9 April 2018. This is incorrect, Mr Pratt was not present in this meeting,” the letter states.

Marsden told the hearing the foundation “did not suggest or make any application for this funding” and was first informed of the plan at the 9 April meeting.

Guardian Australia can also reveal the idea for the foundation was conceived by Sir Sydney Schubert, a Queensland public servant who served as coordinator general under the Bjelke-Petersen Queensland government and was a founding director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and a chancellor of Bond University. He died in 2015.

A spokesperson for the foundation said: “It is our understanding that Sir Sydney Schubert’s idea for forming the foundation was to create a charity to bring science and business together with a common purpose of protecting the Great Barrier Reef.”

The foundation, which has previously not disclosed who established the charity, confirmed the remaining three founders were its current chairman, John Schubert, John Boyd Reid, who was a chairman of his family’s business James Hardie, and Sir Ian McFarlane, a businessman who sought to develop shale oil projects in Queensland.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission records for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation show it was registered as a company in 1999. Its first four directors were Sir Sydney Schubert, McFarlane, Reid and David Windsor, who was an executive director of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators.

“At the Senate inquiry on 30 July, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation was asked about the origin of the foundation. The managing director agreed to make further inquiries,” the foundation spokesperson said.

“Further to these inquiries, it is our understanding that in 1999: an initial meeting to discuss the formation of a charity to assist the Reef was held; those who attended that meeting included Sir Sydney Schubert (a founding director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority), Sir Ian McFarlane, Mr John B Reid AO and Dr John Schubert AO.”

The spokesperson added that in 1998 “the first severe mass coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef occurred”.

She said Sir Sydney Schubert resigned in 2001 and the other three founding directors resigned in 2004. John Schubert became the foundation’s chairman in 2004.

Guardian Australia put questions to the prime minister’s office.

The prime minister’s office passed the queries on to Frydenberg’s office, which responded that it was not unusual for ministers to meet stakeholders without departmental officials present.

A statement released on behalf of Frydenberg said the government was committed to building the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef “recognising not only its environmental characteristics but also the 64,000 jobs it supports”.

“Our record-breaking $500m investment in the Great Barrier Reef is a new investment, building on and directly supporting the intensive work already underway through the $2bn Reef 2050 Plan,” he said.

“To help protect the reef and drive further philanthropic and corporate support, the Coalition government has made available $444m in this year’s budget for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to spend over six years.”

Frydenberg said the foundation would work closely with the Department of Environment and Energy, the Queensland government and expert institutions such as GBRMPA and the Australian Institute of Marine Science to deliver projects.

“The partnership with the foundation has been established through a grant agreement and the foundation will be required to report to the Department of the Environment and Energy on grant activities,” he said.

“The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is a highly respected philanthropic organisation with a strong fundraising track record and history of successful partnerships with a range of sectors and has strong governance and accountability mechanisms.”