General Provisions – Responsibilities of State Agencies
Statutory Authority for Purchases

A state agency must have specific or implied statutory authority to make a purchase for a good or service.

A state agency is responsible for determining if it has the statutory authority to purchase a good or service before awarding a purchase contract.

Specific statutory authority is clearly specified in statute. Implied statutory authority must be determined by the purchasing agency and the agency must demonstrate the purchase is necessary to fulfill its specific statutory duties. As stated in a recent attorney general opinion (see source below), agencies should note “the mere absence in Texas law of a prohibition on doing some act does not in itself furnish authority to perform that act.”

During a pre-payment or post-payment audit, the Comptroller’s office will request a state agency to cite the relevant statutory authority for a payment, unless the authority is obvious.

The Comptroller’s office will occasionally process a purchase voucher that does not contain a required citation of the relevant statutory authority. This does not, however, obligate the Comptroller’s office to process all subsequent vouchers for the same type of purchase without the citation.

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