Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has indefinitely suspended two of the most senior members of the country’s national auditing agency. Auditor general, Madam Lara Taylor-Pearce and her deputy, Tamba Momoh, were indefinitely suspended from office on Thursday morning. No official reasons were given by the President’s Office for the decision, which many in Sierra Leone, have described as unprecedented.

Mrs. Lara Taylor-Pierce, the country’s Auditor General had served as head of Sierra Leone’s Audit Service since 2012. She built an enviable reputation of producing reliable annual audit reports that usually detailed misappropriation and misuse of public funds, corruption, and other financial irregularities across government ministries, departments, and agencies. On Thursday morning, a Presidential Order announced the sudden indefinite suspension of both Taylor-Pearce and her deputy, Tamba Momoh. The Presidential Order also announced that the president had equally requested the establishment of a tribunal to “investigate the professional activities of the auditing agency.”

Civil society organizations and pro-democracy activists in Sierra Leone have fully condemned the decision, describing the Presidential action as
Continue Reading......
https://felicitygists.com/africa-sierra-leone-president-illegally-suspends-audit-officials-amidst-controversy-over-presidential-travel-expenses-and-other-financial-irregularities/