MRS LARA TAYLOR-PEARCE – Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL)

Mrs. Lara Ellen Taylor-Pearce is the current Auditor-General of the Republic of Sierra Leone. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, majoring in accounting, and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK-FCCA), as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sierra Leone (FCISL). Mrs. Taylor Pearce’s audit experience spans both the private and the public sectors. She began her career in 1991, when she started work at KPMG Peat Marwick as a trainee auditor. She rose through the ranks to the position of a supervisory senior. During her tenure at Peat Marwick, she learnt that hard work and integrity paid positively. Working at Peat Marwick was not only challenging, it was also very rewarding and her experiences there prepared her for her move to the public sector.

She started her career in the Public sector in 2000, when she joined the Accountant-General’s Department as a technical assistant in charge of all non-payroll expenditure for the Government of Sierra Leone. She was a vital player in the Government budget process and carried out her duties with diligence and the highest level of integrity. She ensured controls over spending of budget lines. Her tenacity and resilience in ensuring that Public sector funds at the time were spent for the intended purpose, earned her the reputation of being very disciplined.

In 2002, at the end of her contract period at the Accountant-General’s department, she was appointed Finance and Administrative Manager at the Public sector, management support project. She carried her job with her usual diligence and tenacity, and was appointed as the Principal Finance Manager and Head of Administration at the Institutional Reform and Capacity Building Project in 2004. Her stay in these world Bank funded projects ensured that the project funds were utilised for their intended purposes. Rules of the projects were followed as required, and staff under her purview performed their duties for the benefit of the projects.

Mrs. Taylor-Pearce, being very passionate about accountability issues and wanting to find a way of using her passion for the benefit of her fellow Sierra Leoneans, moved to the Audit Service Sierra Leone as a Deputy Auditor-General in 2007. At that position, she not only influenced positive change in the organization as head of finance, administration and training, but also made an impact amongst her peers in the international arena, where she was regularly asked to be part of teams assigned to develop new programmes for capacity building for auditors in the African region.

In November 2011, Mrs. Taylor-Pearce was appointed as Auditor-General, by which mandate she has delivered tremendous changes in the Public Sector Auditing in Sierra Leone. Under her watch, the issue of economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public funds has been brought to the attention of all in the public sector. Through her hard work, leadership style and deep interest in staff capacity development, she has been able to influence her team to such a level that the quality of the products of the organization has gained both national and international recognition.

The development of staff within the organisation has been tremendous during the last few years, rendering the organisation very competitive with the private sector audit firms. The office has progressed from not just carrying out financial and compliance audits, but to a variety of performance and other special audits. This has resulted in a noticeable improvement in the public financial management system in Sierra Leone, evident in the audit recommendations that are now being implemented.

Due to her professional dynamism, Mrs. Taylor-Pearce was unanimously elected by her peers at the Regional Governing Board Meeting held in 2014, as the Chairperson of the English speaking African Region of Supreme Auditing Institutions (AFROSAI-E) – The umbrella Audit Institution in Africa for twenty six English speaking countries. She was reappointed to this position for a second term in May 2017.

Mrs. Taylor-Pearce is the current Vice Chair of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) Board, and a board member of the African Region of Supreme Audit Institutions (Afrosai).

She is a recipient of His Excellency the President’s National Insignia Award for her distinguished role in the Public Financial Management field in Sierra Leone. She is also a recipient of the country’s National Integrity Award.