Short answer. No. The Civil Code forbids public officers and employees from acquiring, by purchase, property of the State or of any government subdivision or corporation the administration of which has been entrusted to them. The prohibition applies even at a public auction and even when they buy through someone else.
What the law says
Public officers and employees, the property of the State or of any subdivision thereof, or of any government-owned or controlled corporation, or institution, the administration of which has been intrusted to them
Civil Code, Article 1491 — Persons Who Cannot Buy. Read the full provision →
Who and what the ban covers
Article 1491 lists persons who cannot acquire by purchase, even at a public or judicial auction, either in person or through the mediation of another. Its fourth paragraph names public officers and employees and bars them from buying government property whose administration has been entrusted to them. The reason is loyalty: an official who both manages public property and wants to own it is on both sides of the deal, and the temptation to undervalue, to steer the sale, or to time it for his own benefit is exactly what the law removes by forbidding the purchase outright.
The trust is the key element
The bar is not against every public servant buying any government asset. It reaches the officer to whom the administration of that particular property has been entrusted. An employee with no control over a given parcel is not disqualified from bidding for it merely because he works for the government. What triggers the prohibition is the officer's own responsibility over the very thing being sold. The article adds that it applies as well to judges and government experts who, in any manner whatsoever, take part in the sale, closing off the route of influencing a transaction while formally standing outside it.
Buying through a front does not cure it
The words either in person or through the mediation of another defeat the obvious workaround. An officer who cannot buy directly also cannot have a relative, a friend, or a dummy corporation buy for him and then pass the property along. If the beneficial buyer is the disqualified officer, the arrangement falls within the ban regardless of whose name appears on the deed. The phrase even at a public or judicial auction closes another gap: the open, competitive setting of an auction does not launder the conflict, because the officer's inside position remains the problem.
Why this matters in practice
A purchase made in violation of this prohibition is legally infirm and exposed to being set aside, on top of any administrative or criminal consequences an official may face separately for dealing in property under his charge. If you are a public officer, the safe rule is simple: do not buy, directly or indirectly, property whose administration is yours. If you suspect an official has bought property he was managing, the record of his role over that asset is the heart of the matter. Because the consequences reach beyond the contract, careful review of the specific facts is worthwhile.