The purpose of this Section is to set forth requirements for establishing repayment agreements resulting from Deferred Payment Arrangements (DPAs).
The Division of the Budget has established policies and procedures for all state agencies regarding the establishment of DPAs. See the New York State Division of the Budget (DOB) Budget Policy and Reporting Manual Item K-0036.
A DPA is a written agreement between a debtor and a state agency, an agent of the state agency, or the State Attorney General's Office. The agreement establishes a payment schedule in order to satisfy a debt. A DPA represents an arrangement made by a State agency so that a debtor experiencing financial difficulty may fully resolve its liability through installment payments. A DPA tends to have associated administrative costs and should therefore be used only when needed.
A State agency should enter into a DPA with a debtor when this arrangement provides the most efficient and effective method of collecting a past-due debt.
Process and Document Preparation:
An agency should follow the process outlined in the DOB Budget Policy and Reporting Manual Item K-0036 to determine if a repayment agreement should be used, and if so, must then determine if the repayment agreement must be submitted to the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) for approval pursuant to Section 112 of the State Finance Law. (See Section 2.A – Thresholds of this Chapter for additional information on the threshold for revenue contracts.)
The DPA should outline the deferred payment arrangement and include provisions that address failure to pay.
If OSC prior approval is required, the agency must submit the repayment agreement to OSC with a cover letter explaining the nature of the debt and how the final repayment arrangement was determined. The NYS Contract number assigned to the repayment agreement by the agency must begin with an “F” prefix. (See Section 2.B – Contract Prefixes of this Chapter for additional information.)
The agency submits an original contract, along with as many signature pages as it requires. (See Section 2.E – Submission of Agency Contracts and Amendments of this Chapter for additional information.) State Attorney General approval of the agreement is required.
Once an agency has determined whether a repayment agreement is subject to prior approval by OSC (see Section 2.A – Thresholds of this Chapter for more information), the agency selects the appropriate Audit Type. The Statewide Financial System (SFS) uses the Audit Type to determine whether the transaction will be routed to OSC for prior approval, and if so, to which audit team in OSC’s Bureau of Contracts (BOC) it will be directed.
Process and Document Preparation Specific to the SFS:
DPA transactions are created in the Customer Contracts Module and require a New York State Customer ID. (See Section 7 – Revenue and Repayment of this Chapter for additional information.)
DPA transactions cannot be bulkloaded into the Customer Contracts Module. Both Online and Bulkload agencies must create a contract transaction directly in the Customer Contracts Module of the SFS using the appropriate Audit Type. For additional instruction on this topic, visit the job aids published to SFS Coach. SFS Coach is accessible from the SFS home page after logging in with your SFS user ID and password. For transactions subject to OSC approval, users generate a Single Transaction Summary (STS) and submit it with the agreement (contract) and required documents to OSC.
Guide to Financial Operations
REV. 02/06/2024