The territory's electoral commissioner could recommend changes to the financial disclosure rules that would force the ACT political parties to declare ''disputed'' debts.
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Phil Green is considering the proposal after the ACT Liberal Party failed to disclose to the electoral authorities a $140,000 debt that was in dispute with Australia Post.
The financially troubled party was plunged into crisis last year amid allegations the party chiefs did not report to Elections ACT hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, in breach of the territory's financial disclosure laws.
As well as the disputed $140,000 bill to Australia Post, the party failed to disclose a $296,000 bank overdraft until details of the debt were published by Fairfax Media.
The party came under further scrutiny when it was revealed a separate $20,000 Australia Post bill for Liberal senator Zed Seselja's 2012 ACT election campaign was charged twice to Mr Seselja's former Legislative Assembly account and to the office of former senator Gary Humphries. The bill went unpaid by the party for more than a year.
Mr Green is considering whether the ACT Legislative Assembly should amend the financial disclosure laws to make it mandatory for parties to declare their disputed debts.
If the electoral commission accepts the proposal, it would be included in a report on the conduct of the ACT's campaign finance reforms, due later this year.
Mr Green said: ''The issue of whether a disputed debt is required to be disclosed in a party's annual disclosure return has arisen in the context of services provided by Australia Post to the Canberra Liberals.''
The electoral commissioner said that under the current laws only debts that were ''undisputed and quantifiable'' should be declared.
''While the law does not require parties and MLAs to declare disputed debts in their annual returns, it would be useful for transparency purposes if parties and MLAs were able to flag the existence of any disputed debts in their annual returns,'' Mr Green said.
He said the Legislative Assembly could legislate for such a requirement, or he could amend the form parties used under the existing law to create a voluntary declaration of disputed debts.
Mr Green said the Liberals' failure to declare other undisputed debts was still being assessed as part of an audit of territory political parties.
The Liberal Party was fined $16,500 late last year for breaching the electoral disclosure laws by failing to report almost $40,000 it received in gifts and donations.
Canberra Liberals leader Jeremy Hanson said there were a range of issues in the territory's electoral finance laws that should be reviewed. ''I welcome that the Electoral Commissioner is doing that - it's a positive thing,'' Mr Hanson said.
''If the intent is to make the process more transparent and accountable, then we would welcome that in principle.''
ACT Labor secretary Elias Hallaj said: ''I haven't seen the details of this specific recommendation, but we have always supported full disclosure.''
Comment was also sought from the Canberra Liberals management committee.
