The organisation that Comptroller and Auditor General heads is known as ___________.

Correct — B. The Comptroller and Auditor General heads the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, which is option (b).

The IA&AD is the audit machinery for both the Union and the States, staffed by the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. Article 148 creates the office of the CAG, Article 149 lets Parliament prescribe its duties and powers, and Article 151 requires its reports to be laid before Parliament and the State legislatures.

The department audits the accounts. It does not keep them — audit and accounts were separated at the Union level in 1976, and the keeping of accounts moved elsewhere.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Indian Civil Accounts Organisation — The Indian Civil Accounts Organisation compiles and keeps the Union government's accounts. It sits on the accounting side of the 1976 separation, under the Finance Ministry, not under the CAG.
• (c)
  Controller General of Accounts — The Controller General of Accounts is an office, not the department the CAG heads, and it works inside the Ministry of Finance as the principal accounts adviser to the Union government.
• (d)
  Institute of Chartered Accountants of India — The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is a statutory professional body under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. It regulates auditors in private practice, not the audit of government.

The Constitution keeps audit apart from accounts so that nobody checks their own books.

The CAG, created by Article 148, heads the Indian Audit and Accounts Department and audits the receipts and expenditure of the Union, the States and bodies substantially financed from public funds.

The Controller General of Accounts, in the Ministry of Finance, keeps the Union's accounts. Until 1976 the CAG did both jobs, and the separation in that year is why the two similar-sounding offices exist side by side.

The CAG's reports go to the President or the Governor, who lays them before the legislature, where the Public Accounts Committee takes them up.

Key facts

• Article 148 of the Constitution creates the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
• The CAG heads the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, staffed by the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.
• The Controller General of Accounts, under the Ministry of Finance, keeps the Union government's accounts.
• Article 151 requires the CAG's Union reports to be laid before each House of Parliament.

Common traps

• Choosing the Controller General of Accounts because the two names sound alike.
• Assuming the CAG both keeps and audits the government's accounts.

No directly related past PYQ was found.