Executive Compensation at the Smithsonian

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Carl Malamud <carl () media org>
Date: February 1, 2007 7:32:24 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Executive Compensation at the Smithsonian

Hi Dave -

For IP if you'd like, FYA if not.

Two things happened yesterday:

1. The President issued a plea for transparency in executive  
compensation.
He said: "A free and vibrant economy depends on public trust.  
Shareholders
should know what executive compensation packages look like."
   http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070131-1.html

2. The Inspector General of the Smithsonian issue two reports on  
executive
compensation, one on "federal employees" and one on "trust  
employees."  The
results were pretty critical: pay levels off the chart compared to other
agencies, a decline in performance accompanied by increases in pay,  
sloppy
accounting, .
   http://www.si.edu/oig/AuditReports/A0606-SICompRed.pdf
   http://www.si.edu/oig/AuditReports/A0602_SBVCompRed.pdf

A footnote in the the first report was interesting:

"3. This report does not cover the compensation of the Secretary, except
in passing. At the request of the Secretary and the Board of Regents,
an independent accountant (under the supervision of the Office of the
Inspector General) conducted an agreed-upon procedures review of his
compensation and expenses."

As a shareholder of the Smithsonian, I asked for disclosure of the  
Secretary's
compensation agreement, by sending email to the relevant Smithsonian  
officials
but the email bounced.  Afraid of perhaps being a pest, I faxed a  
request in a
FOIA request and sent a followup by certified mail:
   http://public.resource.org/smithsonian_ig.html
   http://public.resource.org/smithsonian_ogc.html

Anybody else who wants to write in and request documents is welcome  
to do
so.  I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear from us.

Regards,

Carl


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