Accountant General, Odisha

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) derives his powers from the Constitution and the CAG's DPC Act. CAG discharges his multifarious duties through the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. The Department consists of about sixty thousand employees and is functionally organised into 104 field formations throughout the country. Offices of the Accountants General in the states form the part of these formations. (Provide the following links to underlined text above:

Comptroller and Auditor General of India: http://saiindia.gov.in/english/home/about_us/about_us.html
Powers from the constitution: http://saiindia.gov.in/english/home/about_us/mandate/Constitutional/Constitutional.html
CAG's DPC Act: http://saiindia.gov.in/english/home/about_us/mandate/DPC_act/DPC_act.html
Regulations on Audit & Accounts-2007: http://saiindia.gov.in/english/home/about_us/mandate/Regulations/Regulation2007.pdf)

At the state level there are one or more offices of the Accountants General (Audit) which are responsible for audit of all receipts and expenditure of the State Governments and audit of State Government companies, corporations and autonomous bodies. Since CAG continues to compile the accounts of most of the State Governments, there are also one or more offices of the Accountants General (Accounts & Entitlements) in these States. In the State of Odisha, there are three offices of Accountants General (AG), i.e. offices of the AG (G&SSA), AG (E&RSA) and Principal AG (A&E).

The Comptroller, Odisha was part of the Office of the Accountant General, Bihar and Odisha until April, 1936 when the new province of Odisha was formed and a separate audit and accounts Office under a Comptroller was formed with Headquarters at Ranchi. A branch office was opened at Puri on 26 th April, 1948 to deal with the transactions of Works Department. The office was upgraded to the Accountant General's level in October, 1949 with the assistance of two Deputy Accountant General, one at Ranchi and another at Puri. Accountant General's office moved to Bhubaneswar on 4th May 1956 with some sections and was located in three temporary asbestos roofed halls owned by the State Govt. In early 1957 all the branches finally moved to Bhubaneswar. The new office complex was opened in April i960 and the office moved into the new premises. The office was reorganised in May 1982 into two units each under an Accountant General named Principal Accountant General-I and Accountant General-II. The offices were reorganised on functional basis in March 1984 as the office of the Accountant General (A&E) and the office of the Accountant General (Audit). The office of the Accountant General (Audit) was further bifurcated into two offices i.e., Accountant General (Audit)-I and Accountant General (Audit)-II on functional basis from 5th July 1985. The Accountant General (Audit)-I was declared the cadre controlling authority of various cadres of both the offices with effect from 5 th July 1985. The Audit-I office is under the Principal Accountant General (Audit)-I w.ef. 11.10.2002. The office of the Principal Accountant General (Audit)-I is responsible for the audit of State Government Offices other than those under PWD, Departments of Forest, Water Resources & Projects, Energy, Public Health Divisions and those dealing with State Revenue Receipts. The office is also responsible for the audit of bodies/authorities under Sections 14,15 and 20 of the CAG's (DPC) Act, 1971. For each financial year the office prepares the Audit Report (Civil) incorporating the audit findings of the State Civil Offices. The report also includes the audit findings pertaining to works audit conducted by the office of AG (Audit)-II. This report is presented to the State Legislature. Subsequently, the Office of the Principal Accountant General is re-designated as Principal accountant General (Civil Audit) and the office of the AG (Audit)-II was re-designated as AG (CW & RA) until there was restructuring of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department during April 2012. Since then, the Accountant General (General and Social Sector Audit), Odishawas entrusted with audit of all units under General and Social Sector, the Accountant General (E&RSA), Odishawas entrusted with the audit of all units under Economic and Revenue Sector and the Deputy Director (CRA), Bhubaneswar functioning under the administrative control of Pr. Director Audit (Central), Hyderabad was entrusted with the audit of all Central units.

Paragraph above refers to sections 14, 15 and 20 of the CAG's (DPC) Act. Under section 14, the CAG has to audit the receipts and expenditure of bodies or authorities financed from Union or States by way of grants and loans for an amount of not less than 25 lakh and the amount of such grant or loan is not less than 75% of the total expenditure of that body or authority. Even if these conditions are not satisfied, the CAG may, with the approval of the President (or Governor) audit bodies or authorities provided there is a minimum grant of Rs.1 crore.

Under section 15 the CAG has to scrutinise the procedures by which the authority sanctioning loan or grant to any body or authority, satisfies itself as to the fulfillment of the conditions subject to which the grants or loans were given. Under section 20, the President (or Governor), after consulting the CAG, may request, him to undertake the audit of a body or authority, not otherwise audited by him, on certain terms and conditions.

The office of the Accountant General (G&SSA) is headed by a Accountant General. In his discharge of duties, he is assisted by the Deputy Accountant General (Administration), Deputy Accountant General (FAA), Deputy Accountant General (SS-I), Deputy Accountant General (SS-II), Deputy Accountant General (SS-III), Deputy Accountant General (GSA) and the Welfare Officer. The total staff strength of the office is 642.

The Administration Group under the Deputy Accountant General (Admn) looks after staff cadre control for both the audit offices, budget, personal claims of the staff, housekeeping, implementation of the official language policy and training.

The group under the DAG (FAA) is responsible for the Central Audit of vouchers. The vouchers received from the treasuries are compiled in the office of the Accountant General (A&E). These vouchers are then test checked by this group.

The DAG (SS-I) is responsible for audit of Panchayati Raj Institutions.

The DAG (SS-II) is responsible for audit of the following departments.
• Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare
• SC&ST Development and Minorities and backward Classes Welfare
• Panchayati Raj (Other than Local Bodies)
• Women and Child Development
• Rural Development
• Labour and Employment

The DAG (SS-III) is responsible for audit of the following departments
• Public Grievances and pension Administration
• Higher Education
• Housing and Urban Development (Other than Local Bodies)
• School and Mass Education
• Sports and Youth Services
• Health & Family welfare

The DAG (GSA) is responsible for audit of the following departments • Culture • General Administration • Home • Information and Public Relations • Law • Parliamentary Affairs • Public Enterprises • Science and Technology • Planning and Coordination • Revenue and Disaster Management (excluding stamp duty and registration) • Information Technology • Finance • Housing and urban Development (only local bodies) • Banks

The Offices of the Accountants General are part of the Indian Audit & Accounts Department under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG). The C&AG is a constitutional authority appointed by the President of India. The functions of the C&AG are derived mainly from the provisions of Articles 149 to 151 of the Constitution of India. The C&AG’s Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service (DPC) Act, 1971 was passed by Parliament in 1971 under Articles 148(3) and 149 of the Constitution.

The office of the Accountants General, Odisha is located adjacent to the Secretariat building, Bhubaneswar with branch office at Puri. This office was shifted from Ranchi to Bhubaneswar on 4th May 1956. Prior to this, Head Quarter office of the Accountant General was at Ranchi with two Deputy Accountant General offices at Ranchi and Puri.

After the departmentalization of Accounts of the Union Government in 1976, with the primary purpose of developing an organizational pattern suited to the changed environment of Audit and to improve maintenance of Accounts of the State Government transactions, the Indian Audit & Accounts Department was restructured in March 1984. The composite offices of the Accountants General were bifurcated into distinct offices with separate cadres for dealing with (a) all audit work and (b) all accounting & entitlement work. Again for developing experts in such vide gamut of functions involving different areas of audit functions, it was again bifurcated and thus the office of the Accountant General (Audit-I & Audit-II) Odisha, Bhubaneswar came into existence. The Office of the Accountant General (Audit-II) Odisha, Bhubaneswar subsequently changed as Office of the Accountant General (Commercial, Works and Receipt Audit) Odisha, Bhubaneswar and then as Office of the Accountant General (Economic and Revenue Sector Audit) Odisha, Bhubaneswar. This office was upgraded as Principal Accountant General (Economic, and Revenue Sector Audit) from 16.09.2013.

Office of the Principal Accountant General (E&RSA) is headed by Principal Accountant General (E&RSA) and is assisted by three Deputy Accountants General and around 400 other officials.

The present Principal Accountant General is entrusted upon:

• audit of State Revenue Receipts pertaining to offices of the Excise, Steel & Mines, Transport & Commerce, Revenue and Disaster Management and Finance (Commercial Taxes) Departments and central audit of Forest & Environment Department of the State and all the Public Sector Undertakings and State Autonomous Bodies coming under the above departments;
• audit of Industries, Energy, Tourism, Textile & Handloom, Fisheries & Animal Resources, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Employment and Technical Education & Training Departments and Accounts Audit of all PSUs under audit control of this office of the State and all the Public Sector Undertakings and State Autonomous Bodies coming under the above departments;
• expenditure audit Agriculture, Co-operation, Water Resources, Works, Central Audit of all Works divisions of the State and all the Public Sector Undertakings and State Autonomous Bodies coming under the above departments; and
• supplementary audit of all State Public Sector Undertakings under the audit jurisdiction of Principal Accountant General (Economic & Revenue Sector Audit).

• Consequent upon trifurcation of South Eastern Railway w.e.f. 01.04.2003, Office of the Principal Director of Audit, East Coast Railway was set up on 01.04.2006 by separating the cadre of the Principal Director of Audit, South Eastern Railway
• The office functions in ECoR Sadan, the new Administrative Headquarters of the East Coast Railway.
• As on 01.01.2014, against the sanctioned strength of 113, the men in position are 97 of which nearly 15% are deputationists.
• Out of 97 men in position 69 are at Headquarters and 28 are in three divisions.
• The office is working under severe staff shortage (16 in all) mostly due to non-posting of staff against those repatriated by the office of the Principal Director of Audit, South Eastern Railway.