The phrase "authorities lay" is grammatically correct but may not be commonly used in written English without additional context.
You can use it when discussing the actions or positions taken by authorities, particularly in a legal or formal context.
Example: "The authorities lay the groundwork for new regulations to ensure public safety."
Alternatives: "authorities establish" or "authorities set forth".
Frankly, I've seen the Bahrain authorities lie so much that I don't credit their denial.
The national security council spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said the "responsibility for the safe movement of the column through territory in the Donbass [the historical name for Donetsk and Luhansk] not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities lies on Russia".
On "Homeland," we see the consequences of Jack Bauer's ends-justifying policies: when the authorities lie on CNN about the death of children in Iraq, or frame innocent Muslims to conceal a botched police action, their duplicity — however well-motivated — radicalizes even more enemies.
The main duties of township authorities lie in the control of Class B hazards, which are dangerous, hard to control, and likely to cause casualties.
Ultimate authority lay with the sultan, who could depose officials beneath him when their power became a threat to his dominance.
(Analogous arrangements existed in Hungary, where the minor Ladislas also was king, but the authority lay in the hands of his guardian, the general János Hunyadi).
Throughout their debates, even when they prayed for divine guidance, they rejected the idea that political authority lay with anyone or anything other than the sovereign people.
When the arrest warrants were issued in June, it was not certain where authority lay, or to whom they should be delivered.
In Egypt he saw that the real centre of authority lay with the minister of finance, and during the next years he struggled to bring that department under his control.
The Macpherson constitution, promulgated in 1951, provided for a central House of Representatives, but friction between the central and regional legislatures, related to the question of where supreme party authority lay, soon caused a breakdown.
