COMMENT: The Gauteng government has announced, for the umpteenth time, a turnaround strategy for the ailing provincial department of health.

Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, flanked on one side by her health MEC Hope Papo, told a news conference that an administrator from the National Treasury would be appointed by the end of the month to help put a "transparent financial management" system in place.

Transparent is the key word in the phrase. What has been going on at Gauteng health could do well with a healthy dose of transparency.

Reports of officialdom that has for years struggled to come to grips with proper financial controls have been the order of the day.

This newspaper has told endless horror stories of the shambles that has come to define the sickly state of health in Gauteng.

MECs and rescue plan upon rescue plan have come and gone, yet little tangible progress has been made to improve the situation.

One of the sticking points is the inefficiency in the supply chain which in some instances has resulted in loss of lives because the department failed to procure much-needed equipment.

Suppliers had also gone unpaid for years, thus every year part of the health budget is used to settle old debts.

Attempts to fix what is broken, and has been in that state for years, are always welcome, but this time we hope the plans offer more than just hope for Gauteng citizens.

Trouble is the premier's new-found commitment to transparency comes months after the Special Investigating Unit, which is investigating tender frauds running into R1-billion, recommended that R16.5-million be recouped from corrupt former Gauteng health officials.

While the Mokonyane attempts at normalisation are welcome, the failure to get back the millions that have been siphoned off the public purse is worrying.

The premier was at pains ramming the point home that roping in a national administrator was not the equivalent of putting the department under administration.

It could well be a semantics game she is playing, but the public need much more than that to reassure them that the financial health of the department is in capable hands.

Papo has hardly warmed the seat since taking over the department a few months ago. But he surely needs to show why he was appointed in the first place by sorting out this mess once and for all.