From Cash to Accrual Accounting: The seminal case of the Sicilian Regional Public Bodies * Massimo Costa  and Francesca Cimò  Abstract. The Italian public sector has been traditionally characterised by a cash based and compliance oriented governmental accounting, principally aimed at supporting the budgetary control by the legislative body. Over the last few decades, however, a new movement has been spreading around the world, casting doubt on the potentialities and advantages of the traditional accounting system in favour of an accrual basis one. This paper traces the progressive introduction of a complete accrual accounting by the Sicilian Regional public bodies – within the context of international and national public management changes – pursuing the ultimate goal to improve efficiency, accountability and transparency. After a close examination of the major choices made by a Committee established for this purpose, the work investigates about the need to go beyond a “simple” accrual basis accounting system especially in a context where concepts like inter-institutional horizon and public value are more and more relevant. Keywords: NPM, accrual accounting, chart of accounts, Sicilian Regional public bodies, public value. 1. Introduction Over the last decades and on the wave of the NPM-reforms, the Italian public administration has undergone relevant changes addressed to revise the intrinsic faults of the traditional bureaucratic model as do those related to the cash-based traditional accounting system. The aim of this paper is to outline the process of modernisation of accounting with reference to the Sicilian Regional public bodies’ experience by sketching a cursory overview of the international as well as the national NPM theoretical background that somehow laid the foundations for its launch. Thus, a methodological approach that goes from a general to a particular perspective has been followed. In a context characterised by heterogeneity of applications of accrual accounting, the current work intends to analyse the move from cash to accrual accounting in such bodies by trying to respond to the following questions:  How has the introduction of an accrual basis accounting system occurred?  What have the major novelties been?  Can the new delineated accounting system be considered still adequate in the light of the current scenario where such bodies are required to operate? Although the term “New Public Management” has developed as “summary description of a way of reorganising public sector bodies to bring their management, reporting and accounting approaches closer to (a particular perception of) business methods” (Dunleavy and Hood, 1994), the Sicilian case study presents a peculiar interest that would explain the * Although sections 1, 3 and the overall idea of the paper are the result of a joint work, Massimo Costa has produced section 4, whereas Francesca Cimò has drawn up section 2.  Massimo Costa is Associate Professor of “Ragioneria” [Accounting], “Università degli Studi di Palermo” [University of Palermo]. E-mail: massimo.costa@unipa.it .  Francesca Cimò is PhD Student in “Model based Public Planning, Policy Design and Management ”, “Università degli Studi di Palermo” [University of Palermo], in cooperation with the University of Bergen (NO) and Nijmegen (NL). E-mail: cimo.francesca@gmail.com .