In the last decade, transparency has become a key term of public policy prescriptions around the world. Formulated in terms of "access to information," transparency policies claim numbers are best for making visible the workings of public services systems. Contrary to these numerical objectivist stances, the "citizens," to whom transparency measures are directed, see and come to know the system by drawing on their lived experience of the system. Based on anthropological field-work in health care units in Romania, the paper aims to confront official and "user" perspectives on seeing and knowing public services systems.