ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the management accounting reformation in the public sector and explores the neoliberal transformations of the state. It examines the New Public Management (NPM) discourse in neoliberal terms and shows how it was exerted to transform the state. The chapter also explains how NPM operates as a 'deterministic embracement' and a 'critical encounter'. It discusses how management accounting is deployed in NPM. The chapter also explores how the state was 're-engineered'; the state bureaucracy was subjected to a 'rightward' tilting; and the penal wing of the state was elevated. While deterministic framing is dominant among NPM-friendly academics and global proponents, there are critical encounters at the bottom of agencies and organizations where NPM discourses encounter the life-world realities of people. The cost implications of managerial decisions and controls have been prominent management accounting considerations in manufacturing enterprises. NPM's ambition on performance measurement was not confined to the boundaries of organizations.
