Accounting Powers

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. State Government
  4. Creation, Organization and Powers of Administrative Departments and Divisions
  5. Department of Finance and Administration
  6. Accounting Powers

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The department of finance and administration has the power and is required to:

  1. Maintain a system of general accounts embracing all the financial transactions of state government;
  2. Examine and approve all contracts, requisitions, orders, payrolls and other documents, the purpose of which is to incur financial obligations against state government, and ascertain that moneys have been duly appropriated and allotted to meet such obligations and will be available when such obligations will become due and payable, as the commissioner deems necessary with the objective of improving accountability and managing risk as provided for in title 9, chapter 18;
  3. Audit and approve all bills, invoices, accounts, payrolls and other evidences of claims, demands or charges against state government, and determine the regularity, legality and correctness of such claims, demands or charges, as the commissioner deems necessary with the objective of improving accountability and managing risk as provided for in title 9, chapter 18;
  4. Inquire as needed concerning articles and materials furnished or work and labor performed, for the purpose of ascertaining that the prices, quality and amount of such articles or materials are fair, just and reasonable, and that all the requirements expressed and implied pertaining thereto have been complied with, and reject or disallow any excess;
  5. Make available monthly reports on all receipts, expenditures, appropriations, allotments, and encumbrances of the state government to the governor, the department of audit, and the head of the department, office, or agency directly concerned;
  6. Establish statewide accounting policies and practices that support the state's compliance with generally accepted accounting principles, state and federal laws, rules, and regulations. All such statewide policies shall become effective upon approval by the commissioner of finance and administration and the comptroller of the treasury;
  7. Prescribe such subsidiary accounts, including cost accounts, for the various departments, institutions, offices and agencies as may be desirable for purposes of administration, supervision and financial control;
  8. Examine at any time the accounts of every department, institution, office or agency, receiving appropriations from the state;
  9. Report to the attorney general and reporter for such action, civil or criminal, as the attorney general and reporter may deem necessary, and to the comptroller of the treasury, all facts showing illegality in the expenditure of public moneys, or in the collection of public revenues, or the misappropriation of public properties;
  10. Exercise the rights, powers and duties, except the power to collect taxes, conferred by law upon the comptroller of the treasury under title 8, chapter 4, and the rights, powers and duties conferred by § 9-2-107, insofar as these provisions relate to financial administration and general accounting control of the state government, involving the keeping of general accounts, the auditing before payment of all bills, or vouchers and the authorization of all claims against the state for which appropriations have been made;
  11. In consultation with the comptroller of the treasury, establish guidelines for the evaluation by agencies of their systems of internal accounting and administrative control as provided in title 9, chapter 18;
  12. [Deleted by 2020 amendment.]
  13. [Deleted by 2020 amendment.]
  14. Supervise and regulate the making of an inventory of all removable equipment and other movable property belonging to the state government or any of its departments, institutions or agencies, with the exception of those institutions expressly exempted from the operation of title 12, chapter 3, and keep the inventory current. This subdivision (14) shall not apply to the various collections of articles, specimens and relics placed under the charge of the state museum executive director; and
  15. Approve the use of electronic and other technological means to transfer funds whenever economically feasible, to eliminate paper documentation wherever feasible, and to increase fiscal efficiency and effectiveness.


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