O/o CCA

INTRODUCTION
The Principal Accounts Officer (Industry) is common to the following Ministries / Departments of the Government of India:

1. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)
2. Ministry of Heavy Industry (MHI)
3. Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)

The Secretary of each department is the Chief Accounting Authority for that Department. Presently Sh. Rajesh Kumar Singh is the secretary in the Department for DPIIT; Sh. Kamran Rizvi is the secretary in the Ministry of HI and Sh. B.B Swain is the secretary for the Ministry of MSME.

They are assisted in the discharge of the payment & accounting functions by the Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser Smt. Arti Bhatnagar (DPIIT, MHI & MSME) and the Chief Controller of Accounts Sh. Rajesh Kumar.

The accounting organization is common for all the departments and comprises a Principal Accounts Office, Nine Pay & Accounts Offices and an Internal Audit Wing. The Chief Controller of Accounts is assisted by one Controller of Accounts, one Assistant Controller of Accounts and thirteen Pay & Accounts Officers stationed at New Delhi (7), Jaipur (1), Nagpur (1), Mumbai (2), Chennai (1), Kolkata (1).
The PAY & ACCOUNTS OFFICE is the basic unit of departmentalized accounts organization. Its main functions include :

1. Pre-audit and payment of all bills, including those of loans and grants-in-aid submitted by Non-Cheque Drawing DDOs.
2. Issue of quarterly Letters of Credit to Cheque Drawing DDOs and Post-audit of their vouchers.
3. Compilation of monthly accounts of receipts and payments.
4. Maintenance of GPF accounts and authorization of retirement benefits.

The Principal Accounts Office consolidates monthly accounts compiled by its various Pay & Accounts Offices. The Principal Accounts Office also prepares through the CONTACT package, the monthly accounts to be rendered timely to the office of Controller General of Accounts by the prescribed date of 15th of the following month. Principal Accounts Office further prepares the APPROPRIATION ACCOUNTS and the STATEMENT OF CENTRAL TRANSACTIONS and the material for the FINANCE ACCOUNT OF THE UNION GOVERNMENT (CIVIL) for the Department relating to Industry, and makes payments of loans and grants to State Governments through the Reserve Bank of India and renders advice on accounting matters to the Ministry. It also performs all administrative and co-ordination functions for the Accounting Organization including training function and systems support.
FUNCTIONS
All Payments pertaining to the Ministry are made through the Pay and Accounts Offices. There are 135 Drawing and Disbursing Officers under the Ministry presenting their claims/bills to the accredited Pay & Accounts Officer who issues cheques after exercising the necessary scrutiny. For operational convenience 56 DDOs have been authorized cheque drawing powers. The Cheque Drawing DDOs are authorized to issue cheques basically for salary and contingencies.
ACCOUNTING PROCESS
The PAOs are the field units where the accounting process first starts. The vouchers and the Bank scrolls form the basis for compilation of Accounts. The Cheque Drawing DDOs send weekly list of payments alongwith relevant vouchers to the PAO, which are also included by him in his accounts. Monthly accounts are prepared and submitted to the Principal Accounts Office. The Principal Accounts Office consolidates the monthly accounts received from all the PAOs and renders a consolidated Monthly Account for the entire Ministry to the Controller General of Accounts.

Annual Finance Accounts and Appropriation Accounts are also prepared by the Principal Accounts Office. Finance Accounts present classified and consolidated accounts of transactions of the Ministry under the Consolidated Fund, Contingency Fund and the Public Account. Appropriation Accounts give grant-wise expenditure against the corresponding provision approved by Parliament with explanations for variation. Both Finance Accounts and Appropriation Accounts are submitted to the Controller General of Accounts. They finally find a place in the Union Government’s account prepared by the Controller General of Accounts and laid before the Parliament along with the Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

BANKING ARRANGEMENTS
CBI is the accredited Bank for DPIIT and State Bank of India is the accredited Bank for the MSME and Deptt. of HI & PE. The Cheques issued by the P.A.O. are presented to the nominated branch of the accredited bank for payment. The receipts are also remitted to the Bank by the DDOs/concerned parties/PAOs. After payment the bank sends a daily scroll of payments as well as receipts through the Focal Point Bank to the PAO. The banking arrangements were reviewed and streamlined a few years earlier under which one PAO deals with only one Focal Point Bank of the accredited Bank.
INTERNAL AUDIT
The INTERNAL AUDIT WING carries out audit of accounts of various units of the Ministry to ensure that rules, regulations and procedures prescribed by the Government are adhered to by these units in their day-to-day functioning. It provides valuable information to rectify the procedural omissions and deficiencies and, thus, acts as an aid to the management. The periodicity of audit of a unit is regulated by its nature and volume of work.