Indian Audit and Accounts Service

About the service
•The Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS), a formalized civil service (Group A) of the Union of India, forms the middle and top level management of the organization, through which the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) exercises its mandate.
•The lower level comprises of Officers of Group B and below. The three levels together form the Indian Audit & Accounts Department (IA&AD).
 
Emblem
 
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)
•CAG of India is an independent constitutional authority who is neither part of the legislature nor executive.
•The CAG is the audit authority for the States and the Union of India and the accounting authority for the States.
•This mandate of CAG of India passes onto the IA&AS which performs the compilation of accounts for states, and audit for both, the states and the centre.
 
Accounting Function
•On the accounting part, the Accountant General Offices (AG Office) present in states, do the compilation of the State Accounts.
•IAAS officers also take care of the Entitlement function, such as Pension and Provident Fund, for the state government employees.
 
Audit Functions
•On the Audit front, there are two separate machineries.
Office of the AG (Audit) is in charge of auditing the activities of the State Government,
Office of Principal Director (Audit) takes care of auditing the activities of the Central Government.
•Each state has an Office of the AG (Audit), while the Office of PD (Audit) is located region wise, which may contain more than one state.
•Depending on the officers holding the charge, the offices are also known as the offices of Principal Accountant General or the Director General as the case may be.
 
International Audit
•IA&AD also has international presence via three international audit offices at Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC.
•CAG of India has also been entrusted with audit of international bodies such as the United Nations etc.
 
History of Indian Audit and Accounts Department
•The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has its beginnings in 1858 – the year the British Crown took over the reins of governing British India from the East India Company.
•The first Auditor General (Sir Edward Drummond) was appointed in 1860 and had both accounting and auditing functions.
•Departments of Accounts and Audit were created (reorganized) in 1862.
•The Government of India Act, 1919 provided for ‘Auditor General in India’ responsible for the audit of expenditure in India from the revenues of India.
•The Government of India Act, 1935 laid down the provisions for appointment and service conditions of the Auditor General. The detailed accounting functions were specified in the Audit and Accounts Order of 1936.
•Post-independence, four categories of field offices existed within the Audit Department namely Civil, P&T, Railways and Defence Services.
 
Training
•The IAASofficers are trained at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts (Shimla) for a duration of 1.5 years.
•The training is in two phases:
     •Phase 1: It covers the theoretical background on concepts of government and commercial accounting and auditing.
     •Phase 2: practical exposure is given to the officers wherein they are attached to institutes like the RBI, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies.
•The trainees may also be given international exposure through attachment with the London School of Economics and Political Science.
 
Ranks of IAAS officers
•Deputy Accountant General (DAG)/Deputy Director (DD)
•Senior DAG/Director
•Accountant General (AG)/Principal Director (PD)
•Principal Accountant General (PAG)/Director General (DG)
•Additional Deputy CAG
•Deputy CAG
 
Sanctioned strength of IA&AS Cadre (As on 01.09.2016)
•Junior Time Scale: 88
•Senior Time Scale: 263
•Junior Administrative Grade: 147 (Selection Grade 74 and Ordinary Grade 73)
•Senior Administrative Grade: 128
•Principal Accountant General: (HAG) 56
•Additional Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General: (HAG+)7
•Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General (Apex: 6)
 
Specific Features
•IAAS officers usually get fastest promotions among the Central Services
•They have the highest number of posts at the highest level
•IAAS Officers are also posted at overseas offices of CAG at London, Washington, Rome, New York and Kuala Lumpur.
•They are also posted on deputation to various overseas offices of United Nations institutions, IMF and World Bank.
•They have the opportunity to work in almost all departments as Financial Advisors.
 



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