BAKU, Oct. 19 - Economist Natig Jafarli has called for an accounting of the money spent on Azerbaijan’s public health management agency, TABIB, since 2018, after its transfer to the Health Ministry.
In a Facebook post, Jafarli backed unified management of the health sector but questioned the responsibility of those who had proposed and promoted a separate administrative structure.
He asked whether its proponents could account for the budget money spent on establishing the institution and disclose its administrative costs since 2018.
“How many new hospitals could have been built and how many new doctors hired over these eight years?” he wrote.
Responsibility for Management Decisions
Jafarli argued that the authority to propose changes in public administration must come with responsibility for their effectiveness and consequences. In his view, the return to centralized management should prompt scrutiny of whether the earlier organizational expenses were justified.
He supported running a sector from a single center under a consistent approach, while demanding that those responsible for the previous model explain its results and costs.
Transport Agencies Could Be Next
The economist predicted that bodies responsible for road infrastructure and transport would eventually be brought together under a single management center to improve efficiency.
He also called for removing redundant institutions and agencies created in recent years to impose excessive regulation. Reducing those administrative barriers, he argued, was necessary to expand economic freedoms and remove obstacles to growth.
What the TABIB Decree Provides
A presidential decree dated Oct. 19, 2026 places TABIB, the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units, under the Health Ministry. It provides for TABIB to operate as a public legal entity in the new structure, with the existing entity’s rights, obligations and property transferred to it.
Day-to-day management will be handled by a board comprising a chair and four deputies, appointed and dismissed by the ministry. The Cabinet has three months to prepare proposals, including a draft charter.
Jafarli’s comments were also reported by Yeni Sabah. The call concerns administrative spending, rather than a disclosed total for all medical services.