Indian Audit and Accounts Service

Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) is an Indian Central Government service, free of control from any executive authority, under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The officers of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service serve in an audit managerial capacity, in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. IA&AS is responsible for auditing the accounts of the Union and State governments and public sector organizations, and for maintaining the accounts of State governments. It role is somewhat similar to the US GAO and National Audit Office (United Kingdom).

The service can be divided into officers looking after accounting and audit issues pertaining to the Union government and the State governments, and those manning the Department's Headquarters. The state accounts and audit offices are headed by Accountants General or Principal Accountants General. They are functionally equivalent; only the designations vary. Major states have three Principal Accountants General (PAsG) or Accountants General (AsG), each heading Accounts and Entitlement (i.e., compiling state accounts, maintaining pension accounts, loan accounts, etc.), General and Social Sector Audit (GSSA) or Economic and Revenue Sector Audit (ERSA).

The equivalent officers at the Central level are Principal Directors (PDs) or Directors General (DsG). The PDs, DsG, AsG and PAsG report to Additional Deputy CAG (also called ADAI, for historical reasons) or Deputy CAG (called DAI, again for historical reasons). The Deputy CAGs are the highest-ranked officers in the service.

After training, the Officer Trainees are posted as Assistant Accountant General Assistant Directors a Junior Grade Group A later promoted to Deputy Accountants General (DAsG) or Deputy Directors (DDs) a Senior time scale. Subsequent to their promotion, they become Senior Deputy Accountants General (Sr.DAsG) or Directors. All officers below the rank of AG/PD are also called Group Officers as they are generally in charge of a group in the office.

Recruitment to the IA&AS is through the joint competitive examinations (the Civil Services Examination) and through promotion from the subordinate cadre. Once recruited to the IA&AS, the directly recruited officers are trained mainly at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. The training is split into two phases. Phase-1 involves giving a theoretical background to the students on concepts of Government and commercial auditing and accounting. Phase-2 gives emphasis on practical training. The training involves modules where Officer Trainees are attached to the Reserve Bank of India,TISS-Mumbai,SEBI the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, NIFM Faridabad, the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The Officer Trainees are also given an international exposure through attachment with London School of Economics and Political Science and National Audit Office (United Kingdom).

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