Accounting technologies have dominated public sector management
reforms and accrual based financial reporting has been significant
amongst these technologies. This paper examines the process of change
in the New South Wales Government’s early adoption of accrual based
financial reporting. The study’s main objective is to present a history
that identifies the agents of change promoting and facilitating an early
adoption of public sector accrual accounting. The main primary data
source for this research was interviews with three categories of
participants who had some involvement in the decision that dates back
to the late 1980s. Historical research methods were used within an
analytical framework provided by a proposed variant of Luder’s (1994)
Contingency Model. The paper finds that a revised Contingency Model
is useful as a framework and that the major role played by management
consultants was a significant aspect of the case study.