Ian Ball (accountant)

Ian Ball is a professor of Practice - Public Financial Management at the School of Accounting and Commercial Law at Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand. He served as the Director of Financial Management Policy and Central Financial Controller at the New Zealand Treasury from 1987 through 1994. He is credited with being the architect of the design and implementation of New Zealand's financial management reform process, leading to the passage of the Public Finance Act of 1989. This made New Zealand first country to introduce modern accounting and integrate its balance sheet with the budget, as a tool for its budgeting, appropriations, and financial reporting. This public sector balance sheet was used to avoid a double down-grade to the Sovereign credit rating, under the stewardship of the then Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson.