Technical Advice on Accounting Matters : The CGA provides advice to all Ministries / Departments and State Governments on various accounting matters. The advice rendered by the CGA covers aspects related to maintenance of accounts, accounting procedures for new schemes / programmes or activities, collection of receipts and its crediting into Government account, release of payment and it's accounting, creation and operation of funds within Government accounts, banking arrangements of making payments and collecting receipts, etc.

Disbursement of pension : The CGA is also responsible for disbursement and accounting of pension payments to Government employees retiring from all civil ministries. The functions are discharged through Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO), which was created with the primary objective of simplifying the procedure of pension disbursement and accounting and providing better quality service to the pensioners. The CPAO is the central budgeting and accounting unit for the civil pensions. It functions as a single point interface between the Government, the banks and pensioners. With the introduction of modern technology, CPAO is able to serve over 6, 00,000 pensioners spread all over the country through the network of bank branches specially authorised for pension disbursement.

Internal Audit : The Internal Audit function is carried out with the help of Internal Audit units in every Ministry, supervised by the respective Controller of Accounts; the Inspection Wing of CGA also provides guidance to the Controller of Accounts on this subject.

The CGA also brings out annual review report based on the performance of Internal Audit Wing of various Ministries/Department, highlighting major irregularities, such as those involving over payments, non-recovery of Government dues, losses or infructuous expenditure, irregular procurement, etc., observed during the course of internal audit.

Capital Restructuring and Disinvestment of PSUs : The Controller General of Accounts is responsible for evaluating and processing the proposals relating to the capital restructuring of various public sector undertakings (PSUs) of the Union Government and its submission to the Ministry of Finance. Generally the proposals involve appraisal of the strategy proposed for reviewing the unit. Each proposal is evaluated on the basis of company specific options available. In evaluating these proposals a clear distinction is made between the Government's role as a regulator and its commercial interests as owner of an industry participant.

With the setting up of Board of Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises, the Capital Restructuring Cell in the Office of Controller General of Accounts has been offering their comments on the proposals for consideration of the Board as well as on proposals for restructuring received from administrative Ministries.

Human Resource Development : The CGA manages the cadre of the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) and the entire accounts personnel deployed in civil ministries and is responsible for the entire gamut of personnel management including their recruitment, transfers, promotions, training, and capacity building both within the country as well as abroad and periodical reviews of cadre strength and distribution.

Training : The Institute of Government Accounts and Finance (INGAF) has been setup in the year 1992 under the CGA to meet the training needs of the Civil Accounts personnel. The Institute has developed itself into a centre of academic excellence in the field of Government Accounts and Finance. It acts as a 'thinktank' of the Civil Accounts Organisation providing feedback to the Controller General of Accounts on the training needs and various technical matters.

Besides training the officers and staff of the Civil Accounts Organisation the Institute has also been training personnel of various Ministries and Departments of the Central as well as State Governments. INGAF also provides consultancy services to various Government and autonomous bodies. The Institute has been conducting training for the accounts and finance personnel of several foreign governments under the Internal Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme of the Ministry of External Affairs and also under bilateral cooperation. The Institute has its main centre at Delhi and regional centres at Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

The Office of Chief Adviser Cost (erstwhile Cost Accounts Branch) was set up as an independent agency to assist the Government in determining the fair prices of different product and services under price control/monitoring as well as those purchased by Government, during the Second World War. This was set up as one of divisions of Department of Expenditure. Government procurement of Defence and other requirements were examined by this office. The role of this office got extended/expanded to fixing prices of products covered under the Essential Commodities Act such as Petroleum, Steel, Coal, Cement, etc., which were covered under the Essential Commodities Act. In due course due to increased demand and availability problems, different Ministries/Departments felt the need for services of qualified Accountants to meet the challenges of expanding Indian Economy.

The centralised expertise also became handy to other Ministries/ Departments and they started using the same to meet their cost / commercial requirements by making references for advice on such matters. Demand of professionals from individual Ministries/Departments also grew and they required professional experts available with the Government to be positioned in the respective Ministries/Departments for performing charter of functions assigned to certain Ministries/Departments. A Central Cost Accounts (CCA) pool was set up in 1961 and in 1978; the Pool was converted into Indian Cost Accounts Service which has been organised on the pattern of "Participating Officers Scheme". Out of 146 sanctioned duty posts in the service, 38 are in the office of the Chief Adviser Cost and the remaining posts are in various Ministries/Departments. Recruitment to the service is made through UPSC at class I level i.e., Assistant Director (Cost), and only Professional Cost/Chartered Accountants are recruited to the service. Chief Adviser (Cost) is the Cadre Controller and Head of the Indian Cost Accounts Service. Office of Chief Adviser Cost is the Headquarter of the Indian Cost Accounts Service and deals with matters relating to the cadre administration, including training requirements of the officers for continuous upgradation of their knowledge and skills. The officers perform special functions themselves and do not have support of Group II officers like other finance services. In view of their knowledge and experience, the officers are well versed to tackle technical, economic commercial matters besides attending to simulation and other modern techniques to discharge their functions.