Indian Audit and Accounts Service

Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) is a group 'A' central civil service under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the supreme audit institution of India. Its central civil servants serve in an audit managerial capacity in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IA&AD), and are responsible for auditing the accounts of the Union government and state governments, as well as their public commercial enterprises and non-commercial autonomous bodies. The service's role is analogous to the US Government Accountability Office and the UK National Audit Office.

History
Under the East India Company, the accounts of the 3 Presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay were prepared separately. In 1857, a combined department called the General Department of Account was constituted, and an Accountant General was appointed to head it. The Indian Audit and Accounts Service traces its history to 1860, when these posts were amalgamated by the British Colonial Government to create the post of first Auditor General who had both accounting and auditing functions. It was given statutory recognition by the Government of India Act, 1919, and further strengthened by the Government of India Act, 1935. After India gained independence and the Constitution came into force, the Auditor General was re-designated as the Comptroller & Auditor General of India. In 1971, the CAG's (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act was enacted, which defined the duties and powers of the CAG of India. By section 2 of this legislation, the IA&AD obtained powers for performance of its duties on behalf of the Comptroller & Auditor General.

Organization
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.), Cluster 1 (General Administration, Finance, Health & Family Welfare, Water Resource, Rural Development, PRIs, Agriculture & Food) or Cluster 2 (Energy, Power, Industry & Commerce, Transport, Urban Development, Environment, S&T, Information Technology Public Works, Law & Order, Art & Culture). 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 or Deputy CAG. Deputy CAGs are the highest-ranked officers in the service.

After training, the Officer Trainees are posted as Assistant Accountant Generals and Assistant Directors at Junior Grade Group A and later promoted to Deputy Accountants General (DAsG) or Deputy Directors (DDs), which is 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.

Career Progression
The positions and designations held by an IAAS officer in their career are as follows:

Recruitment and training
There are two modes for recruitment into the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. 50% of IA&AS officers are recruited by the Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC. Officers recruited this way are called direct recruits. The remaining 50% are recruited by promotion from subordinate cadres. After the selection process, IA&AS officers are trained at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, where they are referred to as Officer Trainees. The training spans 89 weeks, with 3 distinct phases of 51, 32, and 6 weeks. The first phase focuses on professional training, in which OTs are imparted theoretical knowledge on accounting, auditing and personnel administration. It also involves modules where they are attached to government bodies and academic institutes such as the Reserve Bank of India, TISS, Mumbai, SEBI, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, Bureau of Parliamentary Studies, Indian Parliament, and IIM, Ahmedabad. The second phase consists of on-the-job training, where OTs are attached to offices of Accountant Generals and Accounts & Entitlement. Finally, in the third phase, the OTs consolidate and reinforce the knowledge gained over the previous 2 phases. They are also given international exposure by attachment with the London School of Economics and Political Science and UK's National Audit Office.