All About Divisional Accountant in CAG

Divisional Accountant

Job Code - Q

Grade Pay – 4200

X Cat. Cities – 33082

Y Cat. Cities – 30028

Z Cat. Cities - 28678

Vacancies in 2014 – 400

Introduction

This is a post which comes under Comptroller and Auditor General of India i.e. C&AG: “An autonomous institution established under the constitution of India”. Till CGL 13 it was the most unknown post (potential wise) and not preferred by most of the candidates. In SSC CGL 13, C&AG recruited 852 divisional accountants, this was a mass recruitment of divisional accountant done by SSC on behalf of C&AG when compared to the past few years.

So, after allotment of DA post to 852 candidates in CGL 13, this increased the curiosity among the candidates who got appointed as a DA and they started enquiring about this post. On the basis of inputs provided by on job DAs, SSCtube hereby analyze and presents each and every aspect of this post.

Process after Selection

C&AG head office will ask for state preferences, personal information and attestation form. Once the deadline gets over, they will allot state according to your merit vis-à-vis preferences provided by you.

Getting a home state in DA is like winning a lottery. As all the seniors working in DA cadre recommends that new recruits must prefer their home state to join as DA. Reason for this recommendation is simple; working in home state will make you comfortable to work with the state government employees (where you natively reside, hence a stronger local connection) while in other state you might be treated with parity. Moreover, other factors like commuting to your hometown and life time same posting i.e. home state also favors this recommendation.

Once state allotment is finalized, your dossiers shall be sent to respective state AG offices. They will issue the appointment letters. With appointment letter you will be asked to give preferences for the cities you like to be posted in, options you can opt might be 3, 4 or 5 depending on state to state basis. After receiving your preference, state AG Office shall allot you the cities and specific division in that city, most of the candidates can get their first or second preferred city. You will work under a senior DA or DAO for 6 month from the date of joining. He may or may not be interested in mentoring you to learn the intricacies of the job. During this time period, it’s entirely up to you whether you attend office or skip it. No one will say anything to you because your absence will help them to carry on their usual activities (including corruption, job bunks) smoothly.

Training

After 6 months of work in the division, state AG office will call you for training. The training lasts for 10 months and in this period you will stay in the city where state’s AG office is located. You have to make all the staying arrangements yourself. No extra allowances will be provided for the said training period. After completion of training, there will be Divisional Accountant Grade Examination (DAGE) which is conducted twice every year. Your get confirmed if you pass this exam, in case you fail (very rare chance) your probation shall continue till you clear (within 6 given attempts). Just after passing this exam you will be allotted a light division charge but in current staff crunch scenario, a single DA is handling the charge of 2 or more divisions, so scope of under the table money increases many folds.

Note 1 – Unlike CSS, in Divisional Account Cadre your seniority is not decided by the date on which C&AG stated the no. of vacancies to SSC(Assistant CSS of CGL13 shall get seniority from the date of advt. of CGL13). Your seniority will depend on your confirmation after passing the DAG Exam. For e.g. if you get failed in DAGE but your junior clears it before you, then he will be your senior forever. However, you will get 6 attempts to clear this exam which is pretty easy to clear.

Note 2 – This is a very important point, which shall decide your entire career graph. DAGE exam consist a compulsory paper of regional language like Gujarat state will have Guajarati language paper, Maharashtra will have Marathi and so on. So you must give your state preferences judiciously. If you are sure enough to pass the regional language exam then chose different states whose regional language is not Hindi.

JOB Profile

1. How C&AG defines DA profile - The Divisional accountants are constituted in a separate cadre with its own leave and training reserve under the administrative control of the accountant General. This cadre is intended to provide trained Accountants for public works divisions (PWD), irrigation divisions, public health and engineering divisions, or other independent executive charge. These divisions are headed by Executive Engineers who are on state government payroll.

2. How DA defines their profile – They (Divisional Accountants) are the central government employees but works in the state government office coordinating with the state government officials. The Divisional accountant cadre i.e. state once allotted cannot be changed except for mutual transfers that too only in probation. The DA cadre is controlled by State Accountant general Office, their promotion and transfers are under the jurisdiction of state AG Office.

 Divisional Accountant is amongst the most relaxed jobs in all other job profiles offered under SSC CGL. We all know how unprofessionally the PWD, irrigation division or public health and engineering departments (which are under state government) works, almost every division works unprofessionally for e.g. no attendance, passing deadlines and no direct accountability to central government. So, you can very well understand that a Divisional Accountant posted in these divisions also works in the same unprofessional manner.

Divisional Accountant is the central employee and working in the state owned office and his controlling authority is situated either in state capital or some other city of that state. So, indirectly Divisional Accountant is his own boss. Salary of Divisional Accountant comes from state treasury, so you have to be vigilant/aware enough to claim all allowances applicable to central government employees.

Work of Divisional Accountant in the Division

The nature of duty of divisional accountant in the state government divisions is to act as a financial advisor to the Executive Engineers of that division and pass/object bills put up by the executive engineer. He is the sole signing authority to pass the finance bills of the division. So, the duties performed by the divisional accountant is not an uphill task, basic knowledge of the rules and regulation compiled from the training period will let you perform your work smoothly. Moreover, you will be allotted a cabin to perform your duties. There will be a head clerk and 3-4 more subordinates who will be assisting you on the basis of work load and size of division.

Power/Respect

Before rating DA in terms of power, we must divide power in 2 types

1. Social Power/Respect/Status – ZERO


2. Power/Respect/Status in Office – In his own office DA enjoys so much power which is not enjoyed in most other CGL jobs. But, over the period of time, as stated before, a DA’s work will remain same even after promotions and hence the power level will also remain the same. This is in stark contrast from other posts offered through CGL where the power level/authority increases after every promotion.

Money Matters???

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If your appetite for earning money isn’t fulfilled by the stipulated salary, then Divisional accountant post offers you enough opportunities to earn. The divisions stated above have their budget for the year and that can start from lakhs to hundreds of crores. For passing every bill you are entitled for 0.25 to 1% of commission (for bill amount is higher than 5 lakhs), in case of lower amount bills, the percentage increases accordingly.

NOTE – There are certain dead divisions also where the allocated budget is Rs. 0 (Don’t Worry See Training section for this)

Transfers

All DA are entitled to transfer in every 3 year period but within the state. Preferences will be asked by the AG’s Office and if the division is vacant i.e. no DA is available in the division then you will be allotted that division. No one from state government or any local politician can influence your transfer before 3 years.

Work Pressure and Working Conditions

[caption id="attachment_4768" align="aligncenter" width="300"] DA Office will like this Typical Sarkari Office[/caption]

This is the post which have least work pressure as compared to other interview post in CGL. No Boss, having signing authority and sub ordinates to assist you. Regarding working conditions, this post will not give you a high quality working environment as in other Interview post of CGL. You have to work in state owned divisions which may or may not located in good city of that state. Infrastructure wise, most divisions are far backward and will remind you of a true sarkari office feeling like RTO offices of a city. Some of the divisions might be located in undeveloped sectors of that state, thus, facilities like good house, light, water, sanity will come under luxury for that area. But, one must remember that the under the table income is directly proportional to the scope of development in the area under that division. The more undeveloped the division, more are the projects and funds allocated for that division’s development.

Promotion

Promotion in divisional accountant are average neither too fast nor too slow. The hierarchy pyramid of DA cadre is shown below

Hence, from above pyramid it is quite clear that DA will get only 3 promotion in whole service. Moreover, Promotions are quite slow once you start reaching top of pyramid and also varies from state to state.

But to overcome this negative aspect of this post, a DA can give SAS exam after completion of 2 years of service. Clearing SAS exam directly promote him/her to 4800 GP and he can join C&AG as AAO (Assistant Audit Officer).