Former Smithsonian Auditor Says She Was Pressured

Debra S. Ritt, the former Smithsonian inspector general who led an audit of the business practices of the institution’s top officials, said yesterday that Secretary Lawrence M. Small tried to pressure her to drop the inquiry last year, The Washington Post reports.

Ms. Ritt said Mr. Small called her before the audit was widened to include his own compensation and urged her to investigate the Smithsonian’s construction spending instead of its business unit. Ms. Ritt, who reported to Mr. Small at the time, resigned in June, shortly after she expanded the audit—originally a review of the Smithsonian Business Ventures’ accounting and executive compensation—to include Mr. Small’s compensation, which is $915,698 this year.

A Smithsonian spokeswoman responded to the complaint by saying, “The secretary denies pressuring Ms. Ritt on any matter or regarding any inquiry.”

Ms. Ritt’s former general counsel, A. Sprightley Ryan, took over the audit and has released two public reports and a letter to the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents that included details of Mr. Small’s spending. The letter said Mr. Small had charged the institution $90,000 in unauthorized expenditures during his tenure.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley raised questions yesterday in the Senate about Mr. Small’s spending practices, and Smithsonian regents yesterday appointed an independent review committee to investigate the matter.

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