2. Date of Birth: August 5, 1959
Date of joining service: Aug 21, 1984
Date of Promotion to Higher Administrative Grade: October 1, 2010
(equivalent to Additional Secretary to Govt. of India)
Present Pay Scale: Available at request
Present pay: Available at request
Personal Details
3. Education
Indian School Certificate from St. Columba’s School, New Delhi,
India, 1975
Bachelor of Arts (Honors) History, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi
University, India, 1976-79
MBA, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 1999-2000
Attended PhD program in Public Administration at North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, from Aug 2006 to May 2009
4. Country Discipline Country Discipline
Australia
Marketing, Accounts,
Microeconomics,
Organizational Behavior,
Business Research
Methods, International
Trade & Investment,
Management Operations
Systems and Strategic
Management
USA
Public Management Systems,
Public Policy Processes,
Contemporary Public
Management, International
and Comparative Law &
Justice, Public Organizations,
Public Budgetary Processes
and Statistics
Graduate Academic Training
5. Languages
English – Fluent
Hindi – Fair
Bengali – Fair
Spanish - Fair
Information Technology
MS-Office suite
Open Office
SPSS
E-mail
Internet
Language & I-T Skills
6. Professional Experience: Technical - I
As Chief Accounts Officer of the State of Assam, I authorized salaries to around
20,000 officers and pensions and Provident Fund balances to over 700,000 State
employees, maintained the accounts of the State, etc with HR strength of approx.
1100. These involved about 500 court cases, around 250 RTI applications per annum
and accounting for approx. Rs. 35000 crore of State expenditure and a similar
amount. My office touched the lives of nearly three million government employees,
pensioners and their dependents
As Chief Accounts Officer of the State of Assam, I detected unauthorized transfer
of public funds worth at least Rs. 4000 crore outside the government’s accounts. The
State govt. accepted my findings and closed all such accounts on Sep 30, 2013. At my
initiative, my office published a decadal macro study of Assam’s finances, perhaps the
first of its kind in the Indian Audit & Accounts Dept.
Certified around 200 annual accounts of about 50 public companies, including two
Fortune 500 companies and $2 billion Indian investments in Bhutan and World Bank
loan & grant accounts, State government accounts and internal audit – companies
covered include IOC, BPCL, HPCL, OIL, BHEL, NTPC, NHPC & PGCIL
7. Professional Experience: Technical - II
Familiar with cash management, fund investment, foreign exchange transactions,
letters of credit, inspection of stores, public works, and other standard procurement
and logistics norms- dealt with frauds in Ministry of Defense and Railways aside from
private sector tea companies applying for financial assistance from Tea Board India;
Reports include annual and five-year perspective plans, capital & revenue budgets,
Plan budgets, accounts, restructuring, staffing, and other administrative and internal
audit reports for Tea Board and Cabinet Secretariat and about 30 federal ministries,
aside from over 100 audit reports for India’s C&AG - dealt with private sector
companies such as Tata Tea, Macneill & Magor, Harrisons Malayalam, Goodricke &
RPG, industry bodies such as TAI and ITA, and major banks like SBI, CBI, Axis, etc.
Prepared several briefs and reports for and participated in inter/intra-Ministerial,
legislative, Planning Commission and Standing Finance Committees for projects,
organizational restructuring, and establishment of new organizations and deployment
of personnel meetings – the multi-disciplinary focus involved matters of law, finance,
administration, resettlement of displaced people and selective interface with private
companies such as TCS,, participated in meetings of legislative committees, and lately,
presented public management issues at North Carolina State University, McKinsey
and national-level legal firms like Fox, Mandal & Little and Amarchand Mangaldas.
8. Professional Experience: Technical - III
Presented major issues and projects to high-ranking committees and university in
USA.
Coordinated, investigated and prepared over 100 cross-country longitudinal and
thematic evaluations using multi-disciplinary teams of up to 500 personnel spread
over 50 cities/towns of India in each case; such evaluations were in social welfare
programs, capital projects, federal taxation, defense, commercial undertakings and
autonomous bodies, etc. – institutions covered include Kolkata Port Trust, IIT-KGP,
IIM-C, Doordarshan, AIR, CBDT & CBEC, Indian Army’s Central Command and State
governments of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, etc.
Have well-developed academic and professional research skills – have written for
Business Standard & The Statesman newspapers and authored several research
papers as part of my PhD academic curriculum in the USA.
Audited Africa Regional office of World Health Organization in Brazzaville, Republic
of the Congo and WHO country office in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
in Nov-Dec 2010
Submitted detailed plan on restructuring of the Indian Audit and Accounts
Department to Comptroller & Auditor General of India
9. Professional Experience: Administrative - I
Serving India’s senior federal civil service since 1984 and from 2000 in senior
management with organizational budgets ranging from Rs 20-3000 crore per annum
and personnel from 1000-45000
Worked closely with India’s Defence, Railways, Energy, Shipping & Transport,
Education, Urban Development, Shipping, Supplies & Purchase, Broadcasting, federal
taxation Ministries and state-owned commercial companies as their statutory auditor;
also served as Financial Adviser of a major commodity board in the Ministry of
Commerce (1995-1998) and as Director of Accounts, Cabinet Secretariat (2004-06).
Held administrative-cum-technical charges in my 29+ years of service and dealt
with diverse caste, religious, sexual and linguistic diversity of personnel without any
cause for major complaint. Responsibilities included recruitment, training,
promotions, entitlements, discipline, employee union negotiations and constant
interface with state law enforcement, lawyers and judicial agencies; introduced
management committees, quality circles and other participative management
instruments.
10. Professional Experience: Administrative - II
Managed large government estates and acquired land, coordinated and
implemented major heritage building/renovation projects.
Extensive professional and training experience in project evaluation, process re-
engineering, performance measurement, training, procurement and logistics
Associated with restructuring of major central and state govt. organizations such as
Rajasthan State Transport Corporation and the Tea Board and setting up of a new
central security agency
I-T applications and networking for office process automation including LAN, client-
server applications, digitized operating manuals, performance measurement, reports,
etc. under my supervision and coordination.
11. Major Professional Milestones - I
1988-89: Parliament’s oversight committee recommended administrative action
for purchase of shelf life-barred parachutes from a foreign country worth about
Rs. 100 crore.
Supervised the inspection of a major ordnance depot and reported obsolete
surpluses of Rs. 14,000 crore that were finally disposed off by the Defense
Ministry thereby adding to government revenues.
Detected a major fraud in a field accounts office of the Defense Ministry worth
about Rs. 50 crore.
1991: Prepared three commercial Audit Reports for CAG of India for State of
Rajasthan in nine months.
1992: Acquired land for CAG of India’s international training institute in New
Delhi (now iCisa) and got the first architectural model made. I also acquired land
on CAG’s behalf in Mumbai. Construction of staff and officers quarters started in
several states with my effort.
Instrumental in the development of the new campus of the National Academy
of Audit and Accounts in Shimla, India.
12. Major Professional Milestones - II
1995-98: Formulated development schemes for tea gardens, labor welfare for plantation
workers, foreign brand promotion schemes
Revamped the R&D Centre of Tea Board and obtained speedy clearance from Govt. of
India.
Segregated Board employees provident fund accounts from the general expenditure
account, changed the format of the annual budget, upgraded employee medical facilities
and introduced pension payment for Board employees through banks.
Started the automation movement in the Board and the renovation and repairs to the
Board’s corporate office in Kolkata;
Devised new schemes for plantation labor welfare in North Bengal tea gardens and
concurred with release of loans, with Board approval, to several sick tea gardens in North
Bengal that had hitherto not been done.
Speeded up release of subsidies and hire purchase loans to North Bengal tea gardens.
For the first time, a token grant was made to the Govt. of West Bengal for their annual Tea
& Tourism Festival;
Part of the team that obtained certification for the Darjeeling tea logo. At my instance,
the Board began filing logo infringement cases abroad with substantial success.
13. Major Professional Milestones - III
1999: Established a state-of the-art staff training institute in Allahabad, UP,
India, introduced new training programs, revamped the library, widened the
faculty base and introduced end-of-course examinations to test proficiency of
trainees.
2000-03: Established the first WAN in-house in the IA&AD, using no-cost
Indian Railway telephone circuits to connect my office and divisional audit
offices, digitized operating manuals, online library catalogue, searchable database
of Railway audit reports, etc. I was also a member of the 5-member Railway
Audit Norms Committee that restructured the human resources and audit
processes of CAG’s Railway Audit Wing in three months.
14. Major Professional Milestones - IV
2003-04: Restructured the human resources and organization of a 1500-personnel office
Planned the layout and actively oversaw the renovation of the 150-year premises of a
heritage building to state-of-the-art premises in Govt. of India Press Building on KS Roy
Road, Kolkata, then the only one of its kind in that city, within 3-4 months. Subsequently,
these premises were used as a set in the shooting of a Bengali feature film;
Reviewed the erroneous disallowance of dredging subsidy by Pr. Director of Audit,
Central, Kolkata, to Kolkata Port Trust that helped the Port Trust to claim approx. Rs. 800-
900 crore from Govt. of India that year. This also subsequently helped the Port to claim
arrears worth several hundred crore rupees that had been withheld by Ministry of
Shipping for previous years owing to disallowance by CAG’s audit. With this financial
infusion, the Port was able to stave off a major financial crisis;
Kolkata Port Trust also remodeled their heritage guest house in Kolkata on the lines of
my then office, Pr. Director of Audit, Central, Kolkata;
For the first time since 1947, the accounts of the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Fund at
Visva-Bharati University were subjected to CAG’s audit and major irregularities pointed
out, particularly in receipts of royalties of the poet and accounting for income. Done
against the wishes of the then Vice-Chancellor.
15. Major Professional Milestones - V
Major financial irregularities, some involving a former Vice-Chancellor of Visva Bharati
University with regard to appointment of employees, was also pointed out and reported in
CAG’s Audit Report for that year.
Major financial irregularities with regard to accounting of valuable inventory and
renovation of galleries by Victoria Memorial Hall & Museum and Indian Museum,
Kolkata, respectively, were pointed out and CAG’s office requested to approach Ministry
of Culture for a special audit of the inventory of Victoria Memorial Hall & Museum.
Did not approve Victoria Memorial’s accounts for that year despite informal requests
made by the Board of Trustees.
An attempt by IIT-Kharagpur to get their accounts audited and certified by a private
chartered accountant on the grounds of government grants accounting for less than 51% of
their total expenditure, without any certification by CAG and approval of Govt. of India,
was foiled.
Notices for evasion of central excise were served upon M/s. Andrew Yule and several
other companies and deficient taxes paid into government account;
16. Major Professional Milestones - VI
2004-05: Restructured the critical accounts office of the Cabinet Secretariat although
facing major challenges of severe shortage of skilled human resources, introduced duty
lists for employees, installed the organization’s first biometric attendance recording
system, revamped its library and re-engineered key functions.
Internal audit wing provided two additional inspection groups despite the shortage of
human resources and cleared all arrears of audit in less than a year.
Recovering accumulated interest on Rs. 100 crore kept outside the government account
by a government agency.
All employees provided zero-balance bank accounts with SBI debit cards and pay,
allowances and all personal claims paid through bank, minimizing cash handling
operations and reducing cash branch personnel.
2006: Instrumental in releasing personnel from Cabinet Secretariat to the then newly-
established National Technical Research Organization and streamlining personnel
entitlement and establishment procedures of the Special Protection Group.
2009-10: Investigated a major fraud of approx. Rs. 30 crore on North Eastern Railway
that led to cases being filed against delinquent suppliers and Railway officers and staff.
Also modernized the office premises on the same lines as for Cabinet Secretariat earlier.
17. Major Professional Milestones - VII
Authored a paper and presentation on reorganizing the Indian Audit and Accounts
Service that was widely appreciated and partly acted upon (copy available upon request)
that has had approx. 20,000 hits on www.slideshare.net
2010-11: Compliance audit on World Health Organization’s Africa Regional and
Democratic Republic of Congo Country Offices that constituted 80% of India’s
Comptroller & Auditor General’s audit report on WHO in 2011 and
Peer reviewed two audit offices under CAG
2011-12: Prepared acclaimed audit reviews on Mechanical Department of North Eastern
Railway and on procurement of high value plant and machinery by Indian Railways and
Peer Review of a sister audit office.
2012-13: Consolidated and presented, for the first time, State of Assam’s finances,
accounts and economy over a span of a decade, supervised accounting of nearly a million
treasury vouchers, 6000 works and forest accounts, issued Finance & Appropriation
Accounts for Assam for 2011-12, paid 30,000 pensions, authorized release of about 15,000
Provident Fund claims and issued nearly 400,000 Provident Fund Statements of Accounts
to State employees
Detected large scale unauthorized transfer of public funds of several thousand crore
Rupees to current bank accounts outside of the government account and without any
oversight for over eight years by the Govt. of Assam
18. Other Experience
Organized some national level conferences and events
Liaised with several foreign delegations, state Ministers and Governors, senior federal officers, etc
Supervised national elections in parliamentary constituencies in Gujarat and J&K as Election
Commission of India’s general observer
Faculty for Indian Defense Accounts Service probationers at the National Institute of Defense Accounts
Faculty for IA&AS officers in National Academy of Audit & Accounts (NAAA), Shimla, India and for
CAG’s International Centre for Information Systems & Audit, NOIDA, India
Taught undergraduate students in North Carolina State University, USA, in 2006-09
Empanelled as Adviser to Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi, India
Trained at Bureau of Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi, India, for parliamentary processes
Trained at Institute of Applied Manpower Training, New Delhi, India, for HR management
Trained at Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, India, for Management Development
Program
Co-presented paper on financing of public projects with Mr. Arvind Mayaram, presently Finance
Secretary, Govt. of India, in 2010 at national level seminar on public finance organized by NIPFP, at Le
Meridien Hotel, New Delhi
19. Academic Papers - I
Reaction Paper: The Classics 2006
Reaction Paper: Reinventing/Reforming Public Administration 2006
Book Summary & Review of Riccucci, Norma (Ed.): Public Personnel
Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges. Pearson Education, Inc.
2006
2006
Book Summary & Review of Hays, Steven E. & Kearney, Richard C. (1995):
Public Personnel Administration Problems and Prospects. Prentice Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
2006
Jack Welch’s WINNING book review 2006
Book Summary & Review, Goldsmith, Stephen & Eggers, William D: Governing
by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector. The Brookings Institution.
Washington, DC, 2004. 224 pages.
2007
The Anti-money Laundering Movement: Emergence of a Soft Law Regime? 2007
Connecting Measured Outcomes/Results to Budget and Reward Incentives 2007
Gujarat Budget Analysis 2001-02 to 2007-08 2007
20. Academic Papers - II
Critiques of New Public Management: Implementing Management Reforms 2007
What are the most important questions still facing public and nonprofit
management?
2007
Reaction Paper: The Current Model of “Good” Public Management: New
Public Management
2007
Organizational Theory: Government to Governance: Adversarial &
Cooperative Models in Contracting for Public Services
2008
Universal Healthcare in America 2008
India’s Supreme Court: Bitter or Sweet PIL? 2008
Distortions in Performance Appraisals and Employee Perceptions of
Fairness in Rewards and Incentives and Career Development: Negative
Fallout on Intrinsic Motivation?
2008
At-will in the Public Sector: Integrating Classified and Unclassified Systems
for a New Model of Government
2008
21. National Dailies
Where's the money for development? Business Standard 25th Feb, 2010
The taxman cometh - I & II, Higher Collection: An Optical Illusion?
& The Disconnect Between Revenue, Expenditure And
Development in The Statesman, Kolkata
9th-10th July, 2011
Capital Assets: The Pernicious Divide Between Plan And Non-Plan
Expenditure in The Statesman, Kolkata
20th Oct, 2011
As she is spoken- East Or West... The Twain Shall Meet in The
Statesman, Kolkata
9th Oct, 2012
Gag the CAG in The Statesman, Kolkata 25th July, 2011
Deifying Desires in The Statesman, Kolkata 11th Oct, 2011
22. Recent Professional Reports
Reinventing the Indian Audit & Accounts Service of the Govt. of India
2010
Management Letter of External Audit Mission On World Health
Organization, Africa Regional Office (AFRO), Brazzaville, Republic of
Congo
Management Letter of External Audit Mission On World Health
Organization Country Office, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa
Chief Controlling Officer-based Audit review of Mechanical Dept. of
North-Eastern Railway, India
2010
Peer Review Report on Office of Principal Director of Commercial Audit-
III, New Delhi, Govt. of India
Peer Review Report on Office of Principal Director of Audit, Air Force &
Navy, New Delhi, Govt. of India
Nov-Dec, 2011
Thematic Review of Procurement of Machinery & Plant by Centre for the
Modernization of Railway Workshops, Ministry of Railways, Govt. of
India
2012
Assam: The Fiscal Panorama 2002-03 to 2011-12 – A Decadal Macro Study Jan 2014
23. Unpublished Articles/Presentations available at
http://www.slideshare.net/shantanu_leo
Combating Corruption in India: Some Suggestions 2006
Performance Audit of National Library, Kolkata, India 2010
2010Performance Audit: Building Blocks
Osama Killing Whodunit? 2011
Reminiscences of Yarrows 2011
Tribute to the Great Dictator 2011
Paradasia to Purgataria: Evils of Inbreeding 2012
24. History of Service: 1984-date
Designation From To Designation From To
Principal Accountant General (A&E),
Assam, Guwahati 2012 Date
Financial Adviser & Chief Accounts Officer,
Tea Board India (Central Staffing Scheme)
under Ministry of Commerce
1995 1998
OSD (HAG-level), COFMOW, Ministry
of Railways, New Delhi
2010 2012 Sr. Dy. Accountant General (Works &
Admin) in AG (Audit), WB, Kolkata
1994 1995
Pr. Director of Audit, North Eastern
Railway, Gorakhpur
2009 2010 Director of Audit (Power) in Principal
Director of Commercial Audit-III, New Delhi
1993 1994
Study leave in USA 2006 2009 Director (Personnel) in CAG of India, New
Delhi
1992 1993
Director of Accounts, Cabinet
Secretariat, New Delhi
2004 2006 Director of Audit (Oil) in Principal Director
of Audit (Commercial)-II, New Delhi
1992 1992
Principal Director of Audit, Central,
Kolkata
2003 2004 Sr. Dy. Accountant General (Commercial) in
AG (Audit), Rajasthan, Jaipur
1991 1992
Principal Director of Audit, South
Central Railway, Secunderabad
2000 2003 Dy. Director of Audit (Central Command) in
Director General of Audit, Defence Services,
Meerut
1988 1991
Sr. Dy. Accountant General in AG
(Audit), UP, Allahabad
2000 2000 Asst. Accountant General in Accountant
General (A&E), Madhya Pradesh
1985 1988
MBA at University of Queensland,
Australia
1999 2000 IA&AS Probationer (on training) at NAAA,
Shimla
1984 1985
Principal, Regional Training Institute,
Allahabad
1998 1999 Civil Service Probationer (on training) at
LBSNAA, Mussoorie
1984 1984
25. Competencies
Complex Report Drafting Analyzing public finance data
Customized presentations Speech writing
Complex Report Drafting Research on public finance and
academic data
Political analysis and feature writing BPR consulting for governments and
quasi-government agencies
Project survey and evaluation of
public projects
Investigating fraud and
embezzlement in governments with
forensic/police experts
Editing Features & story writing from young
teen and upward readers
Administrative, Government
Accounting and auditing training
Organizing large conferences, media
publicity, protocol, etc.
Performance audit of all agencies
26. Postal Address: I-1705 (GF), CR Park
New Delhi 110 019
Tel: +91-9999769350
E-mail: shantanu_leo@hotmail.com
leo.shantanu@gmail.com