Finance Specialist, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (NOC)

• Position title Finance Specialist Level ICS-10
• Department/office GPSO,
• Global Fund Duty station Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Contract type Fixed Term Contract level NOC
• Duration 1 year, renewable
• Application period 29-Nov-2013 to 08-Dec-2013 Print

United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity

Background Information – UNOPS

UNOPS mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner. Within these three core areas of expertise, UNOPS provides its partners with advisory, implementation and transactional services, with projects ranging from building schools and hospitals, to procuring goods and services and training local personnel. UNOPS works closely with governments and communities to ensure increased economic, social and environmental sustainability for the projects we support, with a focus on developing national capacity. Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices in development, humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts, always satisfying or surpassing partner expectations. We employ more than 6,000 personnel and on behalf of our partners create thousands more work opportunities in local communities. Through our headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark and a network of offices, we oversee activities in more than 80countries. UNOPS is committed to achieving a truly diverse workforce.

The Global Fund does not have a country-level presence outside of its central Secretariat in Geneva. Instead, it contracts third parties to serve as Local Fund Agents (LFAs) to oversee, verify and report on grant performance. LFAs are selected through a competitive bidding process.

The Global Fund typically has one LFA engaged in each country where funds are disbursed. The LFA would gives the donor access to local knowledge that may be relevant to grant performance. The Global Fund adheres to the principles of performance-based funding in making disbursement decisions. The aim is to ensure that investments are made only where funding is managed and spent effectively on programs that achieve impact in fighting the relevant diseases (HIV, tuberculosis and malaria).The LFA is a crucial part of the Global Fund’s system of oversight and risk management. A principal role of the LFA is to provide informed and independent professional advice about the capacity of fund/grant recipients to manage the implementation of activities funded by grant funds (including the recipient’s capacity to oversee implementation of activities by implementing parties), to make recommendations concerning periodic disbursement of grant funds, to review grant performance when a grant is being considered for renewal, and to provide the donor on anon-going basis with relevant information on issues or risks which might affect grant performance.

The LFA team is expected to have an up-to-date and comprehensive understanding of relevant diseases, how they are prevented, transmitted and treated, and their impact on a specific country. The team assesses the recipients’ institutional and health/programmatic capacities and arrangements to ensure adequate health expertise (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and/or malaria) in the implementation of the donor grant funds. The LFA team also determines whether the recipient has adequate infrastructure and information systems to support grant implementation, including the monitoring of performance of implementing partners and outsourced entities in a timely and accountable manner. The donor has recently adopted an intensive risk management approach to services with enhanced effort toward in-depth verifications and reporting. The identification of financial and programmatic risks with ongoing updates shall be provided the donor with special attention to the overall context of the relevant diseases and grant implementation in country.

The Financial Management Specialist will be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and report to the Ethiopia LFA Team Leader. The incumbent will be responsible for ensuring that all assigned financial management and oversight work is of high quality and completed within the timeframe set by the client. The incumbent will also be required to travel in-country when necessary.

The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

Functional Responsibilities

1. Report reviews:

Contribute to the review of progress update reports and disbursement requests submitted by the grant recipients (Principal Recipients) as per following:

• Verifying grant recipient and implementing partners’ primary records (supporting documents submitted) for accuracy and completeness, and for the correspondence of those, with the summary internal/external reports prepared by the grant recipients and implementing partners;

• Conducting cross-checks of various primary documents with the summary reports;

• Interviewing grant recipients and implementing partners’ relevant staff members;

• Debriefing grant recipient and implementing partners’ staff members on the main findings from the UNOPS verifications/reports;

• Cross verification of financial data with M&E and health/programmatic, management and procurement data/information;

• Conduct comprehensive financial analysis and reflect in the finance-related sections of the obligatory reporting template.

2. Implementation Reviews:

• Participate in recipient assessments, and financial reviews to provide informed and independent professional advice to the donor about the capacity of recipients to effectively manage and implement the donor grant funds from a financial perspective;

• Conduct scheduled field visits to the grant recipients and implementing partners and provide independent opinion and analysis on the financial management by the relevant parties;

• Identify financial weaknesses and make recommendations with timeframes for necessary follow up by the grant recipients and implementing partners;

• Suggest remedial measures on the potential weaknesses in the management of implementing partners, to ensure the optimum utilization of donor grant money and safeguarding the funds against any fraud;

• Immediately raise all suspicious acts, transactions and activities and processes which may pose potential risks, misconduct, mismanagement, misuse and frauds by grant recipients and implementing partners to the attention of the team leader;

• In conducting the above tasks, ensure that relevant guidelines and policies are adhered to including the ones which are related to the finance functional area. The respective international guidelines (e.g. WHO, UNAIDS, etc) shall be also consulted and followed.

3. Management & client relations:

• Supervise and closely monitor the work of the finance staff;

• Ensure that all teamwork, includes inputs of all finance staff, is of high quality and completed within the timeframe, and as per guidelines set by the donor;

• Responsible for completion of the performance management process for assigned staff;

• Contribute to the annual scope of work, cost proposal and the consequent annual work plan of team activities;

• Foster an atmosphere of team spirit, mutual respect and professional independence within the team;

• Assist the donor in grant negotiations;

• Assist the donor in grant closure activities;

• Demonstrate an overall understanding of the grant architecture and in-depth knowledge of all team activities required to be performed as described in the donor manual;

• Remain updated on donor guidelines and procedures, timeframes for completion of team activities, and the forms and templates to be used in the field of work;

• Perform other duties as per the donor manual and/or as assigned/ required.

Competencies

Apart from UNOPS competencies Supervisory experience.

Decision making.

Ability to analyse.

Organizing and quality orientation.

Communication skill.

Client focus.

Education

Master’s degree in accounting, finance or related field or professional internationally recognized accounting qualification.

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or related field and professional internationally recognized accounting qualification, with additional two years of work experience.

Certifications

Professional internationally recognized qualification such as Chartered Accountant; Certified Public Accountant, Certified in Financial Management, Certified Management Accountant, Chartered Financial Analyst, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Experience

A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience working in a financial role, preferably with at least 2 years of post-qualification experience related to:

(i) financial accounting, with the ability to review and analyse accounting transactions,

(ii) reviewing and negotiating budgets,

(iii) financial management systems, with the ability to review and assess internal controls and financial processes and procedures and provide recommendations for improvement;

(iv) review of financial statements (including income and expenditure statements, balance sheets and cash reconciliation statements); and

(v) review and interpretation of audit reports.

LanguagesEnglish and a good working knowledge of the official language(s) spoken in Ethiopia Contract type, level and duration Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment Contract level: National Officer Level ‘C’ Contract duration: One year initially, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and funding availability. For more details about United Nations staff contracts, please follow this link: http://www.unops.org/english/whoweneed/contract-types/Pages/United-Nations-staff-contracts.aspx

Additional Considerations

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time (CET)
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• For staff positions UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.