Top Smithsonian official's expenses called 'lavish'

Feb. 24, 2007, 11:13PM
Top Smithsonian official's expenses called 'lavish'

By JAMES V. GRIMALDI
Washington Post

WASHINGTON - Lawrence M. Small, the top official at the Smithsonian
Institution, accumulated nearly $90,000 in unauthorized expenses from
2000 to 2005, including charges for chartered jet travel, his wife's
trip to Cambodia, hotel rooms, luxury car service, catered staff meals
and expensive gifts, according to confidential findings by the
Smithsonian inspector general.

"Many transactions were not properly documented or were not in
accordance with Smithsonian policies," acting Inspector General A.
Sprightley Ryan wrote on Jan. 16 to the Smithsonian Board of Regents
Audit and Review Committee. "Some transactions might be considered
lavish or extravagant."

Small, who in 2000 became the 11th Smithsonian secretary, will earn
$915,698 this year in total compensation - more than that of the
outgoing president of Harvard University, which has an endowment about
30 times the size of the Smithsonian's. Over the past seven years,
Small has also received $1.15 million for making his house available
for official functions.

Small declined an interview. "Mr. Small is not going to talk about his
own compensation," said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas. "The
regents determine all secretaries' compensation."

Small, 65, reports to the institution's 17-member Board of Regents,
which referred the inspector general's findings to its audit
committee, made up of four regents. The board last month accepted the
committee's decision to dismiss the findings and defended Small's
expenses as "reasonable."

The regents also decided to rewrite several rules to authorize many of
the transactions that had been deemed in violation of policy.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who had requested the inspector
general's review when he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee
last year, expressed outrage at the audit committee's response.

"I am shocked at what the Smithsonian is spending its money on when it
comes to food, flowers, alcohol and other items," Grassley said in a
letter last week to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who chairs the
Board of Regents.

Copies of the letter and report were obtained by The Washington Post.

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