The head of the Long Island Rail Road says the company has no role in the granting of federal disability pensions worth hundreds of millions of dollars to its retired employees and says the practice does not accurately reflect the railroad’s actual safety record.

Responding to a published report in the New York Times that a huge majority of LIRR retirees receive disability payments whether their claims were justified or not, the company president, Helena Williams, described the awards by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board pension system as “alarming and out of sync with our workplace safety record,” and “inconsistent with social security disability rates.”

In a statement, Ms. Williams said she asked the inspectors general of both the Railroad Retirement Board and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the LIRR’s parent body, to review the situation.

Governor Paterson called on Attorney General Cuomo to look into the disability payments.

“At a time when our state and national economies are facing unprecedented strain and families are worried about meeting the cost of basic necessities, we must ensure the most appropriate, efficient use of taxpayer dollars,” the governor said.

Mr. Cuomo said he was “troubled” by the allegations in the report and would be “aggressively investigating the issue.”