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OTTAWA — A new report says arcane rules are keeping MPs in the dark about the billions in government spending they should be scrutinizing.

Members of Parliament receive conflicting, outdated information about how billions of tax dollars are being spent each year, and get little opportunity to review fiscal plans.

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Just this spring, not a single House of Commons committee was able to report on its examination of some proposed spending because the information arrived too late — and the session clock ran out.

Those are some of the findings in a Commons report released without fanfare this month, even as opposition MPs railed against the Harper government for ramming through its omnibus budget bill without proper study.

The new report, from the all-party government operations committee, argues the federal budget arrives too late each year — and says the government should instead table it by Feb. 1 annually.