Senior bureaucrat Girish Chandra Murmu took charge as new Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Saturday. He replaced Rajiv Mehrshi who superannuated on Friday.

According to a press communiqué, Murmu made and subscribed to the oath of office before the President. He will have a tenure up to November 20, 2024.

Murmu made headlines last October, when he was appointed first Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. However, on the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370, he resigned and now been given charge of another constitutional authority.

He will be entrusted with the responsibility to audit the accounts and related activities of the Central, State and local government, the State-owned public sector commercial enterprises and autonomous bodies financed by the Centre and State. CAG reports are laid in the Parliament and State assemblies.

Murmu is 1985 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer (IAS) of Gujarat cadre.

Born in 1959, he opted voluntary retirement from the post of Expenditure Secretary last year. A post graduate in Political Science, Murmu was instrumental in preparing economic package in 2015, announced by the Prime Minister. During April 2008 to August, he served as Additional Principal Secretary to then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.

Later when Anandi Ben Patel became CM after Modi elevated to the Prime Ministre, Murmu became Principal Secretary to CM.

A man of few words, Murmu got a big task on expenditure management front, when economy was slowing down and there was lot of allegation about delay of payments. Murmu used to take daily meeting with officials of Finance Ministry and other Ministries and tried to short-out the problem. Finance Ministry Nirmala Sitharaman, herself, acknowledged his effort on public forum.