SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Who was appointed as India’s 28 th Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in March 2023?

(a)Praveen Sharma
(b)SS Dubey
(c)Vikram Devdutt
(d)Arun Goel

Answer

Why

Correct — B. S. S. Dubey took charge as India's 28th Controller General of Accounts in March 2023.

The CGA is the Union government's principal accounts adviser. The office sits in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, prepares the Union Government's Finance Accounts and Appropriation Accounts, and releases the monthly accounts of the Centre.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Praveen Sharma — Praveen Sharma is not the officer appointed to this post. The CGA is filled from the Indian Civil Accounts Service, and the key names S. S. Dubey.
(c)
Vikram Devdutt — Vikram Devdutt does not hold the CGA office. Note that the accounting side of government is a separate service from the audit side under the CAG.
(d)
Arun Goel — Arun Goel is the strongest decoy — he was appointed an Election Commissioner in November 2022, close in time, but that is an unrelated office.

Concept

Government accounting in India is split down the middle, between two offices whose initials are the same three letters in a different order.

The CAG audits. The CGA accounts.

The Comptroller and Auditor General is a constitutional authority under Article 148, heads the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, and examines money already spent.

The Controller General of Accounts is an executive office under the Ministry of Finance, heads the Indian Civil Accounts Service, and keeps the books in the first place.

The ordinal '28th' marks this as a current-affairs recall item. It counts officeholders, so it cannot be reasoned out from the constitutional position of the office.

Key facts

The Controller General of Accounts works under the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
The CGA prepares the Union Government's Finance Accounts and Appropriation Accounts.
The Comptroller and Auditor General is a constitutional post under Article 148 and heads the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
Arun Goel was appointed an Election Commissioner of India in November 2022.

Study next

The CAG under Articles 148 to 151: appointment, tenure and reportsThe Indian Civil Accounts Service and the Public Financial Management SystemRecent appointments to constitutional and statutory offices

Common traps

Treating the CGA as a constitutional post when only the CAG is one
Picking a name that was in the news for a different senior office in the same months

SSC comes at the accounts machinery from both ends. The body the CAG heads is asked at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.21, and the Article that mentions the CAG at 24 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.2.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.