A detailed study of the impact of different growth conditions (i.e. ion bombardment, nitrogen flow and In content) on the defect formation in Ga(In)NP epilayers grown on GaP substrates by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy is performed. Reduced nitrogen ion bombardment during the growth is shown to significantly reduce formation of defects acting as competing recombination centers, such as a Ga interstitial defect and other unidentified defects revealed by optically detected magnetic resonance. Further, high nitrogen flow is found to be even more effective than the ion bombardment in introducing the defects. The incorporation of In by 5.1% is, on the other hand, found not to affect the introduction of defects. The results provide a useful insight into the formation mechanism of the defects that will hopefully shed light on a control of the defect introduction in the alloys by optimizing growth conditions.