Smithsonian Head's Expenses 'Lavish,' Audit Says

"Are you troubled by the secretary's office playing an important role in drafting a document that reviews the propriety of the secretary's own actions?" Grassley wrote to Roberts. "Does this raise questions in your mind about the board's independence?"

A spokeswoman for Roberts told The Post, "The chief justice has no comment."

Roger Sant, chairman of the audit committee and the executive committee, has been vocal in his support of Small's tenure and compensation.

"The guy took over a place that was really sort of falling apart," said Sant, who served on the Marriott International Inc. board with Small before becoming a regent. "There was hardly any fundraising capability. He's raised almost a billion dollars personally. What more could we have asked for as a regent?"

Sant, who was co-founder of AES Corp., said the other key members of the audit committee were Robert P. Kogod, a Washington real estate developer and philanthropist, and Patricia Q. Stonesifer, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Sant acknowledged that Small has encountered repeated controversy. Early in his tenure Small angered scientists over proposed changes in research across the institution. He upset historians and filmmakers seeking access to institution archives when he signed a semi-exclusive deal last year with the Showtime cable channel. Small also was convicted of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty when he imported indigenous headdresses festooned with feathers and animal parts from endangered species.

"I think that any of that is far outweighed by his performance as secretary in the past seven years," Sant said. "On any measure I can think of, his results have been outstanding."

A 'Hypothetical' Mortgage

Small took over the Smithsonian after serving as president and chief operating officer at Fannie Mae, where he earned $4.2 million in his last year in addition to bonuses. His original employment agreement provided him with a housing allowance so he could use his residence for "official Smithsonian hospitality." Previous secretaries had been allowed to live in a Smithsonian-owned home.

Small was allowed to claim reimbursement of up to 50 percent of his actual housing costs, up to $150,000 per year. He was to be paid after he provided documentation of such expenses as mortgage payments, homeowner's insurance, utilities and real estate taxes, or "equivalent costs of home ownership," according to a copy of the employment agreement.

A few months after Small became secretary, the inspector general said, he stopped filing the required monthly documentation "for administrative ease."

Instead, Small calculated his housing expense using a mortgage interest rate that was "hypothetical," the inspector general noted, because he owned his home free and clear.

Small's office calculated his "hypothetical" mortgage at $3.5 million, using an 8.32 percent interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage, dating back to Small's hiring date in 2000. When he was hired, interest rates averaged 8.05 percent, but they dropped over the next four years and averaged 5.87 percent in 2005, the inspector general said.