Ours is one of the oldest offices in the country. On the formation of a new ‘Province of Bihar and Orissa’ with its capital at Patna, in April 1912, following the reversal of “Partition of Bengal”, the Headquarters of the Government was temporarily set up at Ranchi, for want of accommodation in Patna. The office of the Accountant General, Bihar and Orissa started functioning from 20thMay 1912 at Ranchi , when Mr. W. Alder, ICS assumed charge as Accountant General, Bihar and Orissa. Surplus staff from the erstwhile office of “Accountant General, East Bengal & Assam, Dacca ”, optees from Shillong office (Capital of Assam) and Calcutta office (Capital of Bengal) were brought to Ranchi in April-May 1912, and they constituted the initial staff for the newly formed office. The office was accommodated in the tiled hutments in Doranda, then a Military cantonment. The office continued to remain in these hutments till 1966, when the construction of a new multi-storied building, adjacent to these hutments was completed. However some sections continued to function from these hutments as late as 1999-2000.

1.2 Consequent to the creation of a separate “ Province of Orissa ” in April, 1936, the Orissa office was separated and eventually shifted to Bhubaneshwar in April, 1956.

1.3 In order to ensure expeditious settlement of personal claims of State Government officers, the Bihar office was bifurcated in February 1973, into two distinct offices viz.: -

(i) Accountant General-I, Bihar with Headquarters at Ranchi and

(ii) Accountant General-II, Bihar with Headquarters at Patna .

The existing office of Deputy Accountant General (Project) in Patna was also placed under the Accountant General (II), Bihar, Patna.

1.4 With the restructuring of the Indian Audit & Accounts Department, the functions relating to “Audit” were separated from those of Accounts & Entitlements and four separate offices, started functioning from March, 1984, viz.: -

  • Accountant General (A&E)-I, Bihar, Ranchi,
  • Accountant General (A&E)-II, Bihar, Patna,
  • Accountant General (Audit)-I, Bihar, Patna,
  • Accountant General (Audit)-II, Bihar, Ranchi

1.5 The post of Accountant General (A&E) I, Bihar, Ranchi was upgraded to the level of “Principal Accountant General” in July, 1985. The office of the Accountant General (A&E) I, Bihar, Ranchi was subsequently re-named as the “Office of the Principal Accountant General(A&E) I, Bihar, Ranchi in March, 1990.

1.6On 15thof November 2000 the State of Bihar was bifurcated into Bihar and Jharkhand with Ranchi as the capital of the latter. As a result the offices were renamed as Offices of Principal Accountant General (A&E) I, Bihar & Jharkhand, Ranchi, Accountant General (A&E) II, Bihar & Jharkhand, Patna, Accountant General (Audit) I, Bihar & Jharkhand, Patna and Accountant General (Audit) II, Bihar & Jharkhand, Ranchi.

1.7On 1st April 2003 the name of the office was changed yet again and it became the office of the Accountant General (A&E), Jharkhand, Ranchi.

1.8 This office has further been up-graded w.e.f. 29.06.2011 and renamed as Office of the Principal Accountant General (A&E) , Jharkhand, Ranchi w.e.f. 29.07.2011.

Situation Post-Bifurcation of the State of Bihar

As per Bihar State Reorganisation Act, 2000, on 15.11.2000 a new state of Jharkhand came into existence with Ranchi as capital.

This bifurcation resulted in the bifurcation of A.G. Offices also, located in erstwhile Bihar. With effect from 15.11.2000 the offices of the Principal Accountant General/Accountant General, Bihar were renamed as Principal Accountant General/Accountants General, Bihar & Jharkhand which were further renamed as Accountant General, Jharkhand and Accountant General, Bihar respectively wef, 1.4.03. Again .w.e.f. 29.07.2011 it has been renamed as Office of the Principal Accountant General (A&E), Jharkhand, Ranchi

In the Accountant General’s office the Account work was bifurcated. Firstly the accounts of combined Bihar were closed by 14.11.2000 and from 15.11.2000 accounts were compiled for Jharkhand and Bihar separately. From December onwards, the accounts of Jharkhand were transferred on VLC dispensing with the parallel manual compilation. From April 2001 accounts, Bihar accounts were put on VLC dispensing with manual compilation.

On transfer of pension authorization work of Non Gazetted staff of Jharkhand State from Patna to Ranchi in Feb’03, this office started dealing with the pension authorization of such pensions w.e.f, 03.02.2003. G.E and Gazetted pension work of the dignitaries/ officers/employees of Jharkhand State were shifted from Patna to Ranchi in two batches, 15th September, 2006 and 15thDecember, 2006.

AG (Audit) II, Bihar and Jharkhand was renamed as Accountant General (Audit), Jharkhand, Ranchi with effect from 22 July 2002 on re-allocation of work between the Accountants General (Audit) stationed at Patna & Ranchi. The staff was reallocated between both the audit offices with effect from 17 July 2003 and in the case of LAD, with effect from 01 October 2003. Prior to re-organization of Audit offices in Bihar and Jharkhand, the responsibility of preparation of Audit Report (Civil) and Audit Report (Commercial) was with the Accountant General (Audit)-I Bihar, Patna and the Audit Report on Revenue Receipts was the responsibility of Accountant General (Audit)-II Bihar, Ranchi. However, 2001-2002 onwards, the responsibility of preparation of all the three reports for Bihar has been entrusted to Accountant General (Audit) Bihar, Patna and that of Jharkhand to Accountant General (Audit) Jharkhand, Ranchi.

The office completed 100 years in May’ 2012. As stipulated in the scheme of restructuring of audit arrangements in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department the Audit office was restructured into different Sectoral Groups viz (i) Administration wing (ii)Social Sector-I & II (iii) Economic & General sector (iv) Revenue Sector and the Audit of Central Government units (including Autonomous Bodies) located in Jharkhand were transferred to the office of the Principal Director of Audit (Central), Lucknow, Branch Office Ranchi with effect from 02.04.2012.

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