Choto Lal Bari |
In Calcutta’s iconic office district Dalhousie Square, Lal Bari or the
Red Building is the Writers’ Building – main Secretariat for almost 300 years
now. The Choto Lal Bari or the small red building next to the Governor House is
the AG Office. It was here in November 1860 Sir Edward Drummond joined as the
first Auditor General of India (in the same building the first Income Tax
office was also established around the same time). The British Crown directly
took over the reins of Indian administration after the Great Revolt of 1857 and
the new Government of India Act of 1858 introduced a system of annual budget
and along with it, auditing of government accounts as per the regular British
practice. In 1919, under the Montague-Chelmsford Act, the office of the Auditor
General became independent of the administration. Government of India Act of
1935 for the first time made provisions for separate Account Generals for the
provinces with the CAG at the helm of the department. Since then the overall
structure of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IA&AD) has remained
the same.
Treasury Building Calcutta: Home to first Income Tax and Audit Office in India Gorton Castle, Shimla, built as the main Secretariat, now the office of AG: Himachal |
There have been mentions of auditors in ancient Babylon and even in Chanakya’s
Arthashastra. Some form of auditing existed in England right from the 14th
century; however the system got a real boost in the 19th century, when
it was made mandatory for joint stock companies to get their balance sheets
audited before presenting it to their shareholders. The system of Comptroller
and Auditor General – as we know it – was introduced in England during the
1860s through a series of reforms by William Gladstone. The comptrolling
function involved control of money supply in accordance with Parliamentary
approval. This was a power never delegated to Indian CAG – before or after
independence.
First Indian CAG Vyakarana Narahari Rao |
Till 1948, when Sir Bertie Monro Staig handed over the baton to V
Narahari Rao, all the CAGs were British. But Indians gained an early entry into
the service when a handful of them were nominated in 1869. Among the very first
officers were D Kishan Singh, Rajani Nath Ray, T Krishnaswamy Iyenger, Ishan
Chandra Bose and Muong Hla Oung. Only towards the end of the 19th
century, Indian officers rose to become Accountants General or AG. It will take
another 50 years for lady officers to join the service.
Sir CV Raman: As someone commented had it not been for Sir Ashutosh, he would have retired as a conscientious AG!! |
The most famous member of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service joined as
Assistant Account General at the same Choto Lal Bari in 1907. Barred from going
abroad on health ground, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman topped the Financial
Civil Service examination. It was in
Calcutta while travelling daily from his rented accommodation at Bowbazar to AG
Office at Dalhousie Square, he came across the office of Indian Association for
the Cultivation of Science. Founded by Dr Mahendra Lal Sircar, this was India’s
first scientific research institution. Raman began working at the Association
in early morning and after office hours and continued this way for a decade
before joining Calcutta University in 1917. Eventually, in 1930, Raman became
the first Indian scientist to win Nobel Prize in Physics.
Yarrows Forever: Home to generations of IA&AS Officers |
IA&AD like most other Indian
institutions is a bad keeper of their own history. So there is hardly any
comprehensive history written on a 150-year old institution. But in every provincial
capital from Calcutta to Chennai and from Allahabad to Mumbai, AG office is not
only situated at the heart of the city but has also played an important part in
the socio-economic and cultural landscape of the city. The department is also
the custodian of a number of historic buildings across the country including
the already mentioned Treasury Building in Calcutta and Gorton Castle
(originally the main Secretariat) at Shimla. The Yarrows building at Shimla,
which houses the national academy of audit and accounts service, was built by
Sir Herbert Baker and was once the summer residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
T N Chaturvedi |
Despite the lofty words of Dr Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly that
the office of the CAG was the most important – even more than Supreme Court
Judges – under the new constitution, CAG had mostly remained another dreary
government department. The first Indian CAG Narahari Rao was followed by A K
Chanda, A K Roy, S Ranganathan, A Baksi, Gian Prakash, T N Chaturvedi, C G
Somiah, V K Shunglu, V N Kaul and the present CAG Vinod Rai. It was during
Chaturvedi’s time the Bofors report came out – till 2G and now coalgate, it was
the most famous audit report in the annals of CAG. After retirement Chaturvedi
joined BJP and eventually became Karnataka Governor. After the Kargil war,
CAG’s report on Coffin scam also shocked the nation.
Determined crusader or incidental hero? The office of the CAG will never be the same again |
From a single office at Dalhousie Square, IA&AD today has more than
200 offices across the country and three offices abroad with more than 50000
employees. CAG or as it is called in international parlance, the Supreme Audit
Institution, SAI of India is also increasingly one of the most sought after
audit organizations internationally and is involved in regular audit of various
UN bodies. Recent series of high profile reports have certainly helped to focus
the spotlight on this mammoth organization and hopefully this will also inspire
them to re-dedicate themselves to their motto of Lok Hitarth Satyanishtha.
Good piece of writing, stringing together history oif a department not much written about - though most of us write reams about its reports!
ReplyDelete