Ethics and Assurance Coordinator at Mercy Corps

General Position Summary

The Ethics & Assurance Coordinator will support the Ethics and Assurance Director to serve as the Mercy Corps Nigeria focal point for ensuring compliance with Mercy Corps’ Code of Ethics, policies, and procedures. He/she will support the Director to examine, review, and analyze records, reports, financial information, and management practices to ensure compliance with laws, regulations and Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures and will investigate potential violations of the Code of Ethics. The Ethics & Assurance Coordinator will work closely with the Ethics and Assurance Director to assist the country management team in developing, implementing and monitoring effective financial and operational controls over activities and offices to mitigate risk.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Following Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures, Support the Ethics and Assurance Director in the internal reporting of any allegations of Code of Ethics violations, including fraud, corruption, bribery or human trafficking.
• Support the Ethics and Assurance Director to maintain the country's Corruption Incident Register and liaise with the Headquarters Ethics team, and other teams as needed, in the resolution of all reported incidents.
• Support the Ethics and Assurance Director to collect, analyse and document the results of investigations and communicate observations and recommendations with the collaboration of the Country Director and senior management team, as appropriate.
• Liaise with program teams in implementing the country Complaints Response Mechanism (CARM). Respond to Code of Ethics violation referrals received through the CARM.
• Support the Ethics and Assurance Director to assist the country management team in determining effective and efficient solutions to operational issues that ensure compliance with Mercy Corps’ policies and donor regulations; mitigate the risk of fraud or corruption and facilitate the achievement of program objectives.
• Support the Ethics and Assurance Director to assist program, operations and finance teams with implementing standard procedures or, as necessary, developing and documenting enhanced procedures for high-risk program activities, in particular, those providing a direct financial benefit to participants (e.g. vouchers, cash distributions), requiring high-value procurement, or the distribution of in-kind goods.
• Support in maintaining the country-level risk register to identify key risks and document strategies to mitigate these risks. Manage the quarterly update process and ensure communication of action plans.
• Perform periodic internal control reviews of in-country financial, procurement, human resource, and logistics procedures in both the main country office and field offices. In coordination with program and monitoring and evaluation staff, conduct field reviews of program activities to ensure that adequate controls are in place and are functioning properly. Communicate findings and work with the relevant departments to correct weaknesses and improve controls as needed.
• Development of monitoring plans for partners, including sub-recipients, key vendors and other partners that must adhere to ethics policies. In coordination with relevant teams, perform periodic compliance reviews of partners.
• Support the Ethics and Assurance Director with the follow-up and resolution of external audit or Mercy Corps Internal Audit findings.
• Perform other related special projects and duties as determined and assigned by the supervisor.

Organizational Learning

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve - we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility: None

Accountability

Reports and works Directly To: Ethics and Assurance Director.

Knowledge and Experience:

• A B.Sc. university degree in finance, accounting or any other related field is required. MBA/MSc in a relevant field will be an added advantage.
• ACCA, ICAN or other relevant qualifications are desirable.
• Minimum of four (4) years working experience in a non-profit organization implementing international programs or other corporate organizations.
• Minimum of four (4) years experience in internal audit, risk and compliance, internal controls or Ethics and Assurance.
• Minimum of three (3) relevant experience in fraud investigation. Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) or Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) are desirable.
• Understanding of a wide range of ethics violations, including fraud, corruption, and human trafficking in humanitarian and/or development settings; Understanding of best practices in ethics management and accountability within INGOs, including best practices for investigations of ethical violations.
• Good communication and interpersonal.
• Computer skills in MS Office programs, particularly Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Good presentation skills.
• Excellent report writing skills.
• Fluent written and oral communication in English
• Understanding of Hausa language will be an added advantage.
• Willingness to travel to remote areas (deep field) for reviews.
• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.