2023 New York Laws › EXC - Executive › Article 10 - Office of General Services › 203 - Additional Duties of the Commissioner.

§  203. Additional duties of the commissioner. The commissioner of the
  office of general services is authorized,  within  amounts  appropriated
  therefor  by  the legislature and subject to the written approval of the
  attorney general, to pay and cause to be satisfied and discharged claims
  for damage to personal or  real  property  or  for  bodily  injuries  or
  wrongful  death  caused  in  connection  with  the  operation of a motor
  vehicle (a) by officers or employees of the state, while  acting  within
  the  scope  of  their  employment,  or  (b)  by other authorized persons
  providing service to state government while providing such  service,  or
  (c)  with  relation  to motor vehicles which are assigned on a permanent
  basis with unrestricted use to state officers or employees, when  caused
  by  such  officer  or  employee or by a person requested to operate such
  motor vehicle by such officer  or  employee  in  the  course  of  or  in
  connection  with  the  use  of  such  motor  vehicle  by such officer or
  employee. Such claims payments  shall  be  made  in  accordance  with  a
  contract with a private firm to process, adjust, investigate, negotiate,
  settle,  pay,  and  subrogate  such  claims  on  behalf of the state, as
  specified in such contract, provided that such firm is duly licensed  to
  perform such services by the state department of financial services.
Notwithstanding  any  other  provision  of  law, any such contract may
  provide for the payment of benefits up to a maximum  of  fifty  thousand
  dollars  for  any occurrence in accordance with article fifty-one of the
  insurance law and for such payments, not based  on  tort,  the  attorney
  general's  approval  shall  not  be  required. Notwithstanding any other
  provision of law, any payment of other property damage or bodily  injury
  or  wrongful  death claims caused by a tort of such officers, employees,
  or other authorized personnel shall not exceed a maximum of  twenty-five
  thousand  dollars  for  each  claimant  in  accordance  with such terms,
  conditions and requirements as shall be set forth in such contract.  Any
  agency  or  unit  of  an agency which is supported by any funding source
  other than the general fund shall reimburse the general fund for all  or
  any  portion  of  such  payments made pursuant to this section which are
  attributable to the other funding source.
Nothing contained in this section or  in  any  contract  provided  for
  herein  shall  impair  any  right  or  obligation in connection with any
  executed contract of insurance entered into by the  state  separate  and
  apart  from the authority granted herein. No moneys appropriated for the
  purposes of this section shall be available for  expenditure  from  such
  appropriation  until  a  certificate  of approval has been issued by the
  director of the budget and copies of such  certificate  filed  with  the
  state comptroller, the chairman of the senate finance committee, and the
  chairman of the assembly ways and means committee.