In 1865, the Auditor & Accountant General of the Dominion of India was redesignated as the Comptroller General or Auditor General of India with his deputies coming to be known as Accountants General who were entrusted with the pre-audit of payment transactions and accounts in the provinces of the dominion of India. Mr. H. Sandeman became the first Accountant General of Bengal. The office of the Auditor General was for the first time, recognized statutorily with the introduction of the Constitutional Reforms in 1919 and in audit matters he was made by Statute independent of the Government of India.

In the post-independence era, the office of the Accountant General, West Bengal was first reorganized in a major way in January, 1968 when it was bifurcated for the establishment of a separate office of the Accountant General, Central for looking after the audit and accounts of the union transactions. The Office of the Accountant General, West Bengal continued to deal with the state audit and accounts till February, 1976 when it was again split into two offices each headed by an Accountant General with the Accountant General (I) dealing with the state accounts side and the Accountant General (II) being responsible for state side auditorial functions. From 1^st March, 1984 following the decision of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India to restructure the combined audit and accounts cadre on functional basis, the office of the Accountant General (I) West Bengal became completely independent with separated cadres. This office was renamed as the office of the Accountant General (Accounts & Entitlement), West Bengal and in 1987 the office was rechristened as the office of the Principal Accountant General (Accounts & Entitlements), West Bengal.

Location of the Office and its branches

The office of the Principal Accountant General (Accounts & Entitlement), West Bengal, is housed in two buildings viz., (i) Treasury Buildings at 2, Government Place (West), Kolkata – 700 001 (main office buildings since 1882) and (ii) Government of India Press Buildings, 8, Kiron Sankar Roy Road, Kolkata – 700 001. Subsequently, a portion of the Manager’s Bungalow located in the Treasury Buildings premises was acquired by this office in 2002.

Functional Groups

The following functions are assigned to the various functional groups in the office

Accounts

Compilation and rendition of monthly accounts of the State Government, preparation of Appropriation Accounts and Finance Accounts of the State Government, Administration and control of the cadres of Divisional Accountants who are posted in the Public Works and other engineering Divisions of the State Government, maintenance of Broadsheets of long term loans to State Government employees including All India Service Officers and issue of no demand certificates, inspection of treasuries and P.A.O.(Audit) i.e., pre-check and payment functions in respect of all IA & AS Officers and Audit and Accounts employees (other than those belonging to Railways, Defence and P & T Audit) posted in Kolkata and compilation of accounts thereof. The Accounts Group is headed by the Deputy Accountant General (Accounts & VLC).

Pension

Checking of admissibility report and issue of authority for payment of pension to the State Government employees including All India Service Officers borne on the West Bengal cadre and Judges of the Hon’ble High Court at Kolkata and teaching and non-teaching staff of the non-Government colleges of the State is entrusted to this Group which is headed by the Deputy Accountant General (Pension).This group also performs the functions relating to calculation of the rates of Foreign Service Contribution in respect of State Government employees on foreign services and crediting the amount of foreign service contributions, Treasury function for payment of pension in respect of certain categories of pensioners, issue of Special Seal Authority, issue of authority for payment of Gallantry Award for the recipient of Indian Police Medal (IPM), King’s Police Medal (KPM), Presidential Police Medal (PPM) and Fire Service Medal (FSM), issue of authority for ad-hoc family pension in respect of employees retired/died prior to 01.04.1965

Provident Fund

Maintenance of Provident Fund Accounts of All India Service Officers of the West Bengal cadre and of the State Government employees other than Group ‘D’ employees come under this group which is headed by the Deputy Accountant General (Fund).

Auxiliary Group

The following Auxiliary Wings/Sections provide support to the aforesaid functional Groups:

Administration

Recruitment, posting, promotion, transfer and deputation of personnel, holding of various departmental examinations including Sub-ordinate Accounts Services (SAS)/ Incentive Examination (IE)/Continuous Professional Development (CPD), preparation of Revised Estimates- Budget Estimates, payment of pay and allowances and settlement of other personal claims including pension of employees, purchase of office materials  in-service training and implementation of official language policy mainly constitute the function of this Group which is under the charge of the Deputy Accountant General (Administration). Apart from the above function, the RTI (Right To Information) cases and court cases are also dealt with by this Group.

Welfare

Management of the departmental canteen, house keeping, organizing sports and cultural activities and promotion of other welfare measures fall within the scope of activities of this wing headed by the Accounts Officer (Welfare).

Organization and Methods

This section is directly under the control of the Principal Accountant General and is responsible for the introduction of new systems and procedures with a view to improving the quality of work and ensuring more efficient and expeditious discharge of the functions assigned to the office. This section takes up studies of important areas and recommends measures for better/efficient functioning.

Internal Audit

The function of this wing is to review the functioning of various groups by conducting test check of their records with a view to preventing recurrence of lapses or mistakes, if any, and thereby bringing about an improvement in the working of the various groups. This wing functions directly under the control of Principal Accountant General.