Profile of CGA

= Profile

Jawahar Thakur h= as taken over as Controller General of Accounts on 1^st July, 2012. He bel= ongs to the Indian Civil Accounts Service of 1979 batch. He is the first officer= of the Indian Civil Accounts Service to hold this coveted post. Mr. Thakur = is a Post Graduate from Delhi University and also a Law Graduate from Delhi University. He has a Degree of M.Sc. in Public Economic Management from University of Birmingham, UK and also holds Diploma in Public Financial Management from the University of Strathclyde, UK. He has acquired professional certifica= tions in Policy Planning and Public Financial Management from various institutes = of international repute including University of Georgia and Harvard University, USA.

He has extensive experienc= e in the areas of Public Financial Management and has worked in diverse capaciti= es in various Ministries of Union Government i.e. Department of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Science & Technology, Ministry of Labour, Department of S= ports, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry = of Home Affairs. He has also worked as Principal Chief Controller of Accounts in the Ministry of Finance, Departme= nt of Revenue before taking over as Controller General of Accounts.

He is known for his initiatives in developing an effective financial management information system. His latest initiative was computerization of revenue accounting in Central Board of Direct Taxes that made seamless consolidation and reconciliation of Direct Taxes.

The officer has stressed on the need for building upon new initiatives in the Department of Expenditure. He has enabled design of systems where accounting information is available on a real time basis, which helps decision makers = in taking informed decisions and making accounting, financial management and p= ublic disclosures systems user-friendly to all the stakeholders.

Controller General of Accounts would be faced with many challenges such as extending t= he coverage of electronic payments to ensure quick and transparent disbursemen= ts, comprehensive redesign of reports pertaining to chart of accounts to make it more informative and improving the effectiveness of internal audit for bett= er financial management in the Government.

With the information system generated by Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System, = flow of funds, actual fund position of various implementing agencies would need streamlining for developing a comprehensive fund tracking and expenditure management system. This initiative would also help in bringing down Unspent Balances which are lying idle in many bank accounts in various states.=

His major initiative will be to create innovative models with Central Plan Sche= me Monitoring System for public expenditure tracking, linking it to the last p= oint of transactions in a phased manner and thus ensuring a robust mechanism of internal controls.

He will have to direct his efforts to make civil pension system more user-frie= ndly to reduce the grievances of pensioners. He is also drawing a roadmap to make Public Expenditure Management System free from manual interventions.

Another area which will ne= ed attention of the present CGA will be linkage of new classification system of accounts with the accounting codification of the Government of India as well as all State Governments and= Union Territories. As Head of the Civil Accounts Organizat= ion, he will be required to augment human resources and other resources to the n= eeds of Cadre having more than 250 Group A officers and 12,000 other officials serving all across the nation.