Texas Scorecard by Brandon Waltens November 10, 2025
The audit has led Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to call for an investigation by the Texas Rangers. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have called for a Texas Ranger investigation into Texas Southern University after the State Auditor’s Office uncovered widespread financial mismanagement involving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
In a letter sent Monday to members of the Legislative Audit Committee, State Auditor Lisa Collier outlined a series of alarming findings from an ongoing audit of the historically black university in Houston. These include major weaknesses in asset management, contracting, and financial reporting that the auditor said were interrelated and contributed to “poor asset oversight, weakened procurement and contracting processes, and delayed reporting.”
According to the auditor’s interim report, TSU failed to conduct annual physical inventories and maintained an “incomplete, outdated, and inconsistently maintained” asset-tracking system.
Even more troubling were the university’s procurement records.
Auditors found 743 invoices worth $282.2 million linked to contracts listed as expired, and 8,144 invoices totaling $158 million dated before the corresponding requisition dates. Some contracts were never signed or lacked clear descriptions of the goods and services purchased.
The report states the university “did not follow its procurement procedures,” requiring approved requisitions before invoices were paid.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/audit-finds-hundreds-of-millions-in-questionable-payments-at-texas-southern-university/
