[7] During the 2014–2016 Ebola pandemic response in Sierra Leone, Taylor-Pearce conducted a real-time financing audit of relief funds, exposing corruption and gaining international attention for her efforts to improve government accountability.
[8] For the period of May to October 2014, more than 84 billion leones in Ebola funds (US$19,000,000) had been spent by government; Taylor-Pearce reported that 30% of the money had been disbursed without clear receipts or documentation to prove where it was going.
The suspension occurred shortly before Taylor-Pearce's team was scheduled to share its audit of the government's 2020 handling of public finances,[8] and the move was criticized by multiple civil society groups.
[8][13] Lawyer Basita Michael, a former president of the Sierra Leone Bar Association, expressed concern that the tribunal was being established without any clear allegation of misconduct having been presented, and she resigned from the government's Judicial and Legal Service Commission in protest.
[15] Newsletter Africa Confidential was critical of the claim that evidence had been suppressed, but reported that, according to government insiders, Bio's communications team had attempted to conceal an emergency trip abroad for the president to receive medical treatment in 2020—along with related expenses and irregular reimbursements—and that Taylor-Pearce's discovery of this concealment had caused long-term tensions between Audit Service Sierra Leone and President Bio to escalate.
A Sierra Leone Telegraph article noted that investigation by authorities over the past two years had not revealed any evidence of misconduct in the auditor general's office.