What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

Highlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

December 2009

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

Implementation of Governance Reforms Is

Progressing, but Work Remains

Highlights of GAO-10-190R, a report to 

congressional committees 

The Smithsonian Institution 

(Smithsonian) is the world’s largest 

museum complex. Its funding 

comes from its own private trust 

fund assets and federal 

appropriations. The Smithsonian 

Board of Regents, the 

Smithsonian’s governing body, is 

responsible for the long-term 

stewardship of the Smithsonian. In 

recent years, GAO and others have 

documented significant governance 

and accountability breakdowns at 

the Smithsonian, which could 

ultimately put funding and the 

organization’s credibility at risk. 

In 2007 the Board of Regents 

Governance Committee released a 

report recommending 42 

governance reforms. In May 2008 

GAO found that the Board of 

Regents had implemented 30 of 

these 42 reforms. GAO also made 4 

additional recommendations. 

In response to a congressional 

mandate, this report provides an 

update on the status of the 

Smithsonian’s implementation of 

governance reforms recommended 

by the Board of Regents 

Governance Committee and GAO. 

The work for this report is based 

on analysis of Smithsonian 

documents, interviews with 

Smithsonian officials, and a GAO 

report on Smithsonian governance 

(GAO-08-632). 

GAO is not making any new 

recommendations. The 

Smithsonian and the Board of 

Regents concurred with the 

findings of this report. 

Since May 2008, the Smithsonian has implemented 9 reforms recommended 

by its Governance Committee—in addition to the 30 it had implemented prior 

to May 2008—and 1 of 4 GAO recommendations, but work remains on 3 

reforms and 3 recommendations, as summarized in the following table. 

Status of the Smithsonian’s Implementation of Governance Reforms and Recommendations

Source Total 

Implemented as

of May 2008 

Implemented as

of December 1, 

2009 Work Remains

Governance 

Committee, June 

2007 42 30 9 3 

GAO, May 2008 4 N/A 1 3 

The nine Governance Committee reforms implemented since May 2008 

include efforts such as revising policies related to travel and expense 

reimbursement and event expenses, creating a regents’ annual public forum, 

and clarifying roles and responsibilities of and developing an assessment 

process for the Board of Regents. The Smithsonian has not completed 

implementation of three Governance Committee reforms related to the 

Smithsonian’s contracting policy, a comprehensive review of financial 

reporting and internal controls, and enhancing the role of advisory boards. 

Regarding GAO’s May 2008 recommendations, the Smithsonian implemented 

GAO’s recommendation to evaluate what actions it can take in the event of 

persistent neglect of duties by a regent, but has not completed implementation 

of the following three recommendations: 

• The Board of Regents took steps towards, but has not implemented, 

GAO’s recommendation to develop and make public its process for the 

selection, use, and evaluation of nonregents. The Board of Regents posted 

on its Web site the process for selecting nonregent committee members 

but did not make a final decision regarding a proposed bylaw to give 

nonregent committee members the same roles and responsibilities as 

regents. 

• The Board of Regents took steps to improve its relationship with 

stakeholders, including advisory boards. However, due to limitations of 

the efforts thus far—such as their informal nature and focus on 

dissemination of information from the regents rather than two-way 

communication—several advisory board chairs with whom we spoke 

expressed concern that the Board of Regents still lacked a sufficient 

understanding of Smithsonian museums and other entities to govern as 

effectively as possible. 

• The Board of Regents has not yet conducted a comprehensive evaluation 

of its reforms but plans to do so in fiscal year 2010. View GAO-10-190R or key components. 

For more information, contact Mark L. 

Goldstein, (202) 512-2834 or 

goldsteinm@gao.gov.