Former IG Says Small Asked Her To Drop Audit

He said the Smithsonian's board "will have to consider very hard whether the time has come to turn off the lights in the office of this secretary of the Smithsonian."

After his speech, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said, "I couldn't agree with him more."

Grassley also disclosed yesterday that Small and his wife, Sandra, each booked $3,464.50 first-class airline tickets, for which the Smithsonian paid, on a business trip to Las Vegas in 2002. Documents released by the senator's office showed the Smalls stayed in a $500-a-night room at the Venetian hotel. Vouchers released by Grassley show the Smalls' trip cost the Smithsonian $9,692.

The expense vouchers also show that Small spent $2,800 for chauffeured car service during a four-day business trip to Los Angeles and San Jose. In his speech, Grassley said he couldn't accept the justification for this expenditure. "In a memo justifying the car service in California, the claim is made that there would be 'a safety risk for [Small] to carry as much cash as would have been needed to pay a taxi to drive him from city to city.' Even children who claim dogs are eating their homework are embarrassed by that one."

The total expenses for the West Coast trip, according to the documents, were $7,984.

Documents released by Grassley also show that Small and his wife in 2003 traveled to Hawaii on business to visit the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Small flew first-class and the couple bunked at one of the top-rated hotels in the country, the $724-a-night Four Seasons Resort on the Big Island, and stayed through the Thanksgiving holiday, paying for part of the trip themselves. While there they rented a Mustang convertible and also used a limousine service.

The findings of the inspector general and details about Small's authorized and unauthorized spending, first reported in The Washington Post, have angered many institution staffers.

Small has declined to give any interviews about the inspector general's reports and his expenses.

Rudy Rudran, a conservation officer at the National Zoo and a Smithsonian employee for 40 years, said he was outraged and called for Small's resignation in an open letter to Undersecretary Sheila Burke. "The bottom line is that ever since Mr. Small came to the Smithsonian, he has behaved in a manner unbecoming of a person responsible for leading a highly respected academic institution. He has had a corrupting influence at the Smithsonian," Rudran wrote.

In an interview, Rudran said he is worried about the impact on the institution's public funding and its reputation. The Smithsonian, a complex of 18 museums and research facilities as well as the National Zoo, receives 70 percent of its money from the federal government. For fiscal 2008, the White House requested $678.4 million for the Smithsonian.

"To me the federal allocation allows us to research independent of commercial interests. If that is eroded we could become pawns to the people who have the money," Rudran said. "As for the institution, we have had 160 years of excellence, we can't let that go to pot."

Criticism has also been directed at the regents. Sant has said the expenses incurred at Small's private residence were justified because Small did official Smithsonian entertaining at his Woodley Park home. Grassley said yesterday he has not been supplied with a list of official events at the Small residence but his staff had "found only a handful of occasions" for that purpose.

The regents yesterday appointed an independent review committee to investigate the issues concerning Small's expenditures and other Smithsonian practices.

Charles A. Bowsher, a former comptroller general, was chosen as the chairman. Working with Bowsher will be Stephen D. Potts, director of the Office of Government Ethics from 1990 to 2000, and A.W. "Pete" Smith Jr., former chief executive officer of the Private Sector Council, a nonprofit organization that works to improve government operations.

The committee is scheduled to report to the regents in two months.

Also yesterday the regents announced they were forming a committee on governance for their advisory board. Questions have been raised by Congress about the role of the regents in approving Small's expenses and even changing some of their rules to authorize other expenses.

The regents, a 17-member board of private and public individuals, is chaired by John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States. Its members include Vice President Cheney and six members of Congress.