Mr Andrews also said the Victorian branch of the Labor Party had paid back the full amount listed in the report as it was the appropriate thing to do.

The Premier said there would be no action against the MPs involved, on the basis the Ombudsman Deborah Glass herself made no recommendations for such action, and she noted that MPs believed the arrangement to be legitimate.

Ms Glass made six recommendations as a result of the investigation.

These including revising sections of the Victorian Parliament’s members’ guide and a section of the Parliamentary Administration Act, ensuring the proposed position of parliamentary integrity adviser has a training and guidance function, creating a separate allowances and entitlements handbook to the members’ guide, reviewing staff pooling arrangements, and establishing clear pathways for the referral of alleged misuses of parliamentary resources to independent agencies.

Bendigo MPs Jacinta Allan and Maree Edwards were not among the 21 MPs who breached parliamentary rules.

But retired Northern Victorian MLCs Candy Broad and Margaret Lewis were, Ms Glass finding them to have signed time sheets authorising the payment of field organisers (those employed to campaign) as casual electorate officers.

Ms Broad and Ms Lewis both nominated field organisers for employment as casual electorate officers to work in the Bendigo East electorate, held by Ms Allan.

Retired Macedon MP Joanne Duncan also nominated a field organiser for employment as casual electorate officers to work in the electorate of Macedon, which was won by Labor MP Mary-Anne Thomas.

But Ms Glass found there was strong evidence that that field organiser maintained a separation between that role and his duties as an electorate officer.

That field organiser also maintained Ms Duncan was “particular about what went on” and did not allow campaigning from her electorate office.

EARLIER: Bendigo MPs Jacinta Allan and Maree Edwards are not among the 21 Labor MPs found to be involved in the misuse of almost $388,000 of funds during the 2014 state election campaign.

But the Victorian Ombudsman’s report names retired Northern Victorian MLCs Candy Broad and Margaret Lewis as among those who committed breaches of parliamentary rules.

Andrews government ministers Jenny Mikakos, Gavin Jennings, John Eren, Lily D’Ambrosio and Martin Pakula were also involved.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass found the MPs signed off on time sheets that paid personnel employed to campaign for Labor as casual electorate officers for two days per week, out of parliamentary funds.

But Ms Glass said for at least 18 of these employees, there was no separation of the two roles in practice.

Under parliamentary rules, electorate officers assist in parliamentary and electorate duties, but cannot support MPs in political or party activities.

Ms Glass said that while those employed to campaign, known as field organisers, and MPs defended the arrangement on the basis the work overlapped and was useful to the MP, the evidence showed there was no demarcation between time claimed as electorate officer work and that for electoral campaigning.

“But while some electorate officer work was done for some Members of Parliament, the arrangement to employ field organisers as electorate officers was an artifice to secure partial payment for the campaign out of parliamentary funds, and was wrong,” she said.

But Ms Glass noted the evidence suggested that the MPs who participated in the arrangement believed it was legitimate.

Labor had also repaid the money, she said.

She found the former leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council, John Lenders, was the architect of the scheme.

Ms Allan’s office directed the Bendigo Advertiser to Premier Daniel Andrew’s response on the matter when asked for comment. Ms Edwards’ office has also been contacted for comment.