William Jarvie died when the vehicle in which he was riding collided with a construction truck entering Interstate 95 from a median stockpile area. His surviving children sued the Georgia Department of Transportation, alleging that the Department negligently approved, constructed, monitored, and maintained an unsafe access point for the contractor’s stockpile operation. The trial court denied the Department’s motion to dismiss on sovereign-immunity grounds. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed. The Georgia Tort Claims Act waives immunity only as provided by statute and does not cover independent contractors’ torts. The court held that the Department’s relevant conduct was approval and contract oversight of a stockpile plan designed by the contractor, not negligent design of the highway project as a whole or regulatory inspection of State property. That conduct fell within the Act’s licensing-powers exception, which protects losses resulting from approval or similar authorization. The court rejected the attempt to characterize the same approval as an inspection claim, explaining that the substance of the claim controls. Because the complaint sought recovery for the decision to allow stockpiling in the median, the Department remained immune. Judgment reversed.