And there is.

It's called a turnaround strategy.

What exactly is a turnaround strategy supposed to entail, you might well ask.

A good question.

In years gone by, when Government companies messed up, they got a "bailout" - usually several million more than they had already squandered from State coffers - to get them temporarily out of a fix like paying their staff or their overdraft.

Then finally Government admitted, after throwing good money after bad, that it just needed to give up on some pet national projects like the Development Brigade Corporation (DBC) and Amalgamated Commercial Holdings (Amcom), and soon it plans to throw in the towel on the Namibia Development Corporation (NDC) too and shut it down for good.

But for those companies which Government just can't see their way through to letting go (not in the foreseeable future anyway) - the national airline Air Namibia and the national broadcaster Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) being notable examples - the bailouts are being stopped and so-called "turnaround strategies" are being introduced.

Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila warned during her Budget speech in March that bailouts were a thing of the past, and now turnaround strategies are the way to go.

A new bill to regulate State-Owned Enterprises, once law, will demand such strategies from the more than 50 enterprises it will govern.

So the company couldn't get it right the first time.

Or the second, or third time.

And so they get a bailout, or several, to get them on the right track.

Then, when things are still not going well after the many chances, a presidential commission of inquiry is needed, a new CEO or a new board or all of these.

Cabinet gets to work on commissioning a turnaround strategy.

Not having had too much success with this method for its own companies, Government nevertheless seems to think that it should extend the courtesy to private enterprise too.

This week, a technical committee, trying to stop the closure of the Malaysian textile factory Ramatex, also proposed that what this multi-national, multi-billion-dollar enterprise needs is a "turnaround strategy".

What exactly that will entail we can only guess at, if history is anything to go by.

Probably more incentives for services, tax rebates, better-trained Namibians to handle the jobs and a less whiny workers' union.

But who says Ramatex needs or wants to be "turned around"? They may just want to cut their losses and go to a country with less labour unrest, where higher productivity and turnover can be achieved and where workers' unions and the media will let them get on with their business the way they want to, without being bugged.

But surely if Government can offer them one of their many turnaround strategies we can make them stay? FLAGSHIP MOMENTS The most recent Government company to require such an overhaul is Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR).

The country's flagship resorts are in a shambles; there is no money to fix them.

Who knows what they did with the money they did get.

But no fear, a turnaround strategy is on the way.

That will fix it.

Government has already intervened in the last six months, taken over for a couple of weeks, given them many more millions, appointed a new boss, got rid of a few more people this week.

Now we can expect sunshine and roses, Environment and Tourism Minister Willem Konjore promised Parliament during his Budget speech last month.

TransNamib was one of the first to require the much-touted turnaround strategy (some years back).

They even gave it a name: the 'Tanaula' project - Oshiwambo for turnaround.

They report that it has been going well since then.

But the company is bogged down in litigation with disgruntled employees who allege nepotism, unfair dismissals and treatment by the company.

The Walvis Bay Municipality also needs a turnaround strategy, the Auditor General's 2005 audit report advises, if it is to counter the N$13 million in losses it made during the 2004-05 financial year.

But what happens when the turnaround also flops? After nearly two years of much to and fro on a turnaround strategy for Air Namibia, the day finally dawned.

They sold off the money-guzzling jumbo jet, flew in a new CEO and hired some cheaper-to-operate aircraft (for which, mind you, Government still had to fork out for the guarantee on the lease agreements).

Exactly a year later they were borrowing N$86 million from commercial banks (after Government told them 'enough is enough', but then still got forced into standing guarantee for the new debt the airline will probably never be able to repay).

Asked about the turnaround strategy that was supposed to let it fly off into the sunset and leave the taxpayer in peace, Finance Permanent Secretary Calle Schlettwein admits that it hasn't been working ...

management is to blame, as are a number of unforeseen factors shared by the aviation industry in general.

Makes me wonder what exactly that turnaround strategy addressed, if not the calibre of its management and the volatility of the airline industry! Now we wait with bated breath for another turnaround strategy - one for the NBC.

A new board is already there to get the turnaround going, a new CEO is on the way and Information and Broadcasting Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has promised Parliament that a turnaround plan is what the doctor ordered.

That will fix the Corporation's N$27 million in debt, get a grip on management and finally get the broadcaster to stand on its own two feet.

Or will it? But I'm sure there must be a turnaround plan to turn around the turnaround plan when it doesn't work out!

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