Description

The past two decades have witnessed a metamorphosis in the government sector of several
countries. One particular reform approach has been adopted by such countries as New
Zealand, UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Canada, USA, etc. A
considerable body of studies have been conducted with the aim of modeling the
government accounting innovations of these countries (Luder, 1992, 1994, 2001, Jaruga
and Nowak, 1996, Godfrey et al, 2001, Christensen, 2002 and Ouda 2001, 2004 and 2005).
Other studies have tried to model the totality of their public sector management reform
(Pollit and Bouckaert, 2000). Whilst these studies have attempted to model some
components of this type of government sector reform, no study has tried to model these
government sector reforms from a generic perspective and to give a comprehensive picture
of the whole spectrum of this type of government sector reform. This study will attempt to
fill this gap in the literature by developing a generic model for government sector reform
based on (1) a profound study of the practical experience of New Zealand as a pathfinder
country in respect of the comprehensive government sector reform and (2) on the Basic
Requirements Model (BRM) for Successful Implementation of Accrual Accounting in the
Public Sector (Ouda, 2001, 2004 & 2005) which can assist in determining the basic
requirements for success with this approach to government sector reform.