August 8, 2007
Smithsonian: Giving Enron A Run for Their Money
There seems to be no end to the drama playing out at the Smithsonian Institution. The story so far: Former Secretary Lawrence M. Small resigned back in March amidst allegations of gross financial expenditures and poor management decisions. He was replaced by acting Secretary Cristián Samper, and the Board then began an overhaul of the Institution based on a scathing report on the state of museums issued earlier this year. Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer Sheila P. Burke resigned in June, and barely six days ago the organization kicked Business Ventures Chief Gary Beer to the curb for more financial indiscretions, to the tune of $30,000.
What's next? Grease up the paper shredders folks, we've got a document destroyer. The Post reports that Former Secretary Small's yes-man, Executive Assistant James M. Hobbins, up and quit today after it was discovered he destroyed transcripts from a January 2007 Board of Regents meeting. Though it was, on its face, a regular meeting, it included discussion of retroactively approving many of the expenditures made by Small, including an unauthorized trip to Cambodia.
Though the Institution claims it's standard practice to get rid of these records after the official minutes have been printed, in this case it happened after a document retention directive was issued as part of the investigation opened by the Senate Finance Committee in February of this year. A fairly common procedure in any investigation, document retention requires that no person destroy even benign documents. The Post notes that as of yet, no charges have been brought against Hobbins.
Click over to the Post article to read the details on Hobbins' history at the Smithsonian, including the role he played in cheerleading Small into the organization, the blanket financial approvals he gave to Small, and the unauthorized bonus he received from the former Secretary. We bet Smithsonian employees are glad their pensions aren't riding on the Institution's coffers.
Photo by briankmoulton
|
Can anyone provide a link to the "scathing report on the state of museums issued earlier this year?"
You can find the report here:
http://www.si.edu/about/documents/final_ERC_report.pdf
The post title should be Giving Enron a Run for OUR Money! I know the Smithsonian raises private dollars but it still is a taxpayer-funded institution.
Larry Small and his cronies are a bunch of sleaze!
Guest[3]: The Smithsonian has a Government side that runs on straight public dollars, an "Endowment" side that is a nonprofit corporation so it pays no tax, and while S.I. business ventures pay the IRS they screw the people who live here - the shops and restaurants do not collect District sales tax.
"Small's yes-man"? The guy had been working at the Smithsonian for 40 years!
Okay, the guy disposed of a single document after the "dispose of no documents" order was given, so he may deserve some kind of punishment, but try to get a little perspective here. He shredded one transcript, for which the minutes had already been circulated, and the article even points out that another copy of the transcript was obtained, so none of the information he "destroyed" was actually lost. Doesn't sound like all that grand of a conspiracy to me . . .
I have a simple question as a US tax payer. Is there any method by which we can get Mr. Small to return our money that was, shall we say, inavertently donated to him by various and sundry oversee-ers ?
So Nate, I take it you missed the last paragraph of the post, and the entire Post article?
I never said the guy was a saint, but I still think that characterizing him as simply "Small's yes man" or exlaiming "Grease up the paper shredders," over the loss of one board meeting transcript is exaggeration. He's hardly the only one who was "cheerleading Small into the Smithsonian," nearly all the coverage of his selection was positive and there was much trumpeting of how great he would be for the Institution's bottom line. The scientists and scholars were skeptical, sure, but no one was much paying attention to their objections until some of Small's bad judgements started to come to light (Catherine Reynolds' gift was a definite trigger point).
Why isn't anyone demanding the heads of the Smithsonian Board of Regents over all this crap, is what I want to know? They approved most of it up front, and almost all of it after the fact, and only asked Small to step down when it was clear Congress was going to step in and make their lives miserable. I have a feeling they're more culpable in all this than a career bureaucrat.
Apart from the document-shredding angle, there's not much parallel between Enron and Smithsonian. So Small blows $90k on indulgent crap. That's chump change compared to the gold-plated hookers Lay and Skilling handed out at their orgies. Enron shredded METRIC TONS of documents; this guy tossed one? Smithsonian's budget is around $1 billion; Enron's topped $111 billion in 2001. Their now worthless stock was worth $90 a share before it tanked, leaving thousands without pensions and the taxpayers end up footing the bill. This was the biggest multibillion-dollar scam since the savings and loan bailout (anybody here remember the Neil Bush's Silverado SNL bailout that cost the taxpayers $1 billion? Didn't think so. But hey, what do you expect from a guy who can't even identify a prostitute while he's having sex with her.)
Like Nate said, WTF is the point of having a board of directors if they rubber stamp this horses**t? I fully expect some apologetic speech where they "take full responsibility" and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Now excuse me, but I have to get back to my prostitute.
You all have no idea what it is like attempting to work for a place with such crooked, arrogant "leaders". It is dispiriting in a way i cannot describe (though I have tried, believe me). I know the general public doesn't give a shite, long as the icons are on display-but I hope the Institution can regain some kind of balance. Right now, we are a Fortune 500 Company with collections.
A 20 year SI employee in DC
You all have no idea what it is like attempting to work for a place with such crooked, arrogant "leaders".
Unless you're self-employed, I'd say most of us do know what you're talking about. And even then, I've been known to dip my hand in my own till once in a while. For the good of the company, you understand.