Accounting Team (AT):


There shall be at least one Accounting Team for each Assembly Constituency/Segment consisting of one official and one Assistant / Clerk. The personnel of the Accounting Team should be drawn from the accounts sections of various Government departments, or Public Sector Undertakings.


The accounting teams shall work under the guidance of the Assistant Expenditure Observer for maintaining the 'Shadow Observation Register' and 'Folder of Evidence' of each candidate of the Assembly Constituency / Segment. They shall enter the items of expenditure, as reported to them and put the notified rates against each item and calculate the total expenditure on the items for each candidate. The format of Shadow Observation Register is given at Annexure-B13.


There are cases when election campaign material is used after filing of nomination, though it might have been paid for before the nomination is filed. The team shall ensure that the expenditure on all the election campaign material which is used after the filing of nomination is included in the Shadow Observation Register, though the payment for it may have been made before filing of nominations Similarly, the expenditure on rally or procession in connection with filing of nomination should be shown as part of the election expenditure.


Accounting Team will function from the date of announcement upto date of poll/re-poll, if any, for the purpose of accounting the expenditure of the political parties and after nominations are filed, the candidate's accounts will be maintained by the team as per the instructions. However, Accounting Team shall report for duty one day before the day of counting and again on 25th Day to 37 Day after declaration of result of election, for the purposes of giving training to the candidates or his election agents in submission of account of election expenses and to assist in preparation of the DEOs Scrutiny Report and Expenditure Observer Report. Accounting Team shall be finally relieved after 37th day of declaration of results. (Annexure-B18 & B20)


In case of Assembly elections an accounting team will function in each assembly constituency and maintain the Shadow Observation Register (SOR) & Folder of Evidence (FOE) for each candidate. In case of Lok Sabha election, the Assistant Expenditure Observer (AEO) & team for each Assembly segment will maintain SOR & FOE separately for each candidate and their reports to the AEO (Hq. AEO) of the Assembly segment where RO is based. The Hq. AEO and his team shall co-ordinate with all other AEOS of the Assembly segments and will ensure that these accounts are collated at the time of inspection. The AEO will function from the date of notification. (Annexure-B20)