Indian Audits & Accounts Service
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IA&AS or Indian Audits and Accounts Service is a Indian Central Government service, free of control from any executive authority, under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The officers belong to Indian Audit and Accounts Department and serves as audit managerial capacity. It is responsible for auditing the accounts of the Union and State governments and public sector organizations and maintaning accounts of State government.
The service has Principal Accountants-General and Accountant General for each State. Generally, each state has one Principal Accountant-General in charge of audit functions. In addition to Principal Accountant-General, each state also has Accountant-General in charge of accounts and entitlement functions (Provedient Fund and Pension etc). Bigger state may have Accounant General (Audit) besides Pricipal Accounant-General. Recruitment to the IA&AS is through the joint competitive examinations (the Civil Services Examination) along with the Indian Foreign Service,Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Revenue Service(IRS). Once recruited to IA&AS, the officers are trained at National Academy of Audit and Accounts, Shimla, Himanchal Pradesh, India. The officers of IA&AS are required to acquire and possess not only the professional skills of an accountant and auditor but also to develop administrative competence to manage the staff of the Indian Audit & Accounts Department which has a strength of over 60,000 personnel. Their job requirements include scrutiny of intricate contracts, understanding of tax and revenue laws, assessing the financial health of commercial corporations, grasping for instance the complexities of oil exploration or the working of an atomic power plant and comprehensively reviewing the effectiveness of implementation of country-wise schemes for rural development, health services, education etc. IA&AS officers also go abroad to conduct embassy audit i.e. audit of Embassies and High Commissions of India situated all over the world.
Many IA&AS officers are seconded to Middle East (Oman, UAE) and African countries (Botswana) to serve in audit department as specialist. Many also join in UN and its allied agencies for short term.
IA&AS is the government's financial watchdog, and is a critical element in the checks on the government. It role is somewhat similar to the US GAO and NAO, UK
The Web address of National Academy of Audit and Accounts, Shimla is https://www.naaa.gov.in The Web address of classified list of IA&AS offciers is https://cagofindia.delhi.nic.in/cagtel
