PERL-ECP State Admin Officer at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role   

• The Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) is a five-year public sector accountability and governance programme. Its objective is to support governments of Nigeria (at Federal, State and Local level) to reform core governance processes (primarily policy-making, implementing, tracking and accounting for policies, plans, and budgets) and to ensure that these improvements feed through into the improved delivery of public goods and services.

PERL is made up of three pillars that plan and work together:

• ARC (Accountable, Responsive and Capable Government) works with Nigerian governments to develop more systematic, transparent, responsive and accountable core governance processes. It assists governments to work with citizens to identify and address governance blockages to the effective delivery of services.
• ECP (Engaged Citizens) works with a wide and inclusive range of citizen groups and representatives, the media, and politicians. It supports these partners to bring citizens’ priorities to the attention of government in an effective way and to hold government to account for the implementation of policy and budget commitments.
• LEAP (Learning, Evidencing and Advocacy Partnership) works to strengthen the evidence base for reform by creating demand for, generating and encouraging the use of evidence to inform discussion and decision-making on public sector reform.

This role is in the PERL-ECP team:

• The State Administration Officer is responsible for the day to day running of the office. This includes management of the office resources and coordination of all logistical needs. The SAO will directly manage all office support staff and drivers and will work closely with all state team members to ensure the effective delivery of the programme. Where required the SAO will provide support to both the State Partnership Facilitator (SPF) and the State Finance Officer (SFO) to ensure programme activities and financial duties are completed in a compliant and timely manner.

Purpose of Position

• The Administration Officer is responsible for the day to day running of the office. This includes management of the office resources and coordination of all logistical needs.
• The SAO will directly manage all office support staff and drivers and will work closely with all state team members to ensure the effective delivery of the programme.
• Where required the SAO will provide support to both the State Partnership Facilitator (SPF) and the State Finance Officer (SFO) to ensure programme activities and financial duties are completed in a compliant and timely manner.

Authority Levels
Reporting Requirements:

• The State Administration Officer reports to the State Team Leader

Line Management:

• Line management of driver, office assistants and any administrative intern/corper.
• This includes conducting staff performance management, including mentoring, staff development, approval of timesheets, appraisal, arbitration, and enforcement of discipline.
• Provide adequate training and mentoring to any junior staff member in basic office administration management to be able to cover (whether individually or collectively) for the SAO when on leave/out of post - scope and/or share of duties and responsibility to be defined through written agreement with the STL.

Signatory Authority:

• This position has no signatory authority but will be required to work closely with other team members who do have signatory authority and provide them sound recommendations.
• They will also work as part of the team to ensure that the variance of spend against forecast remains below 2% on a monthly basis, this is achieved by good communication of spend and anticipated spend against forecast to the Finance Officer.

Relationships
Teamwork & Mentoring:

• Familiarise yourself with the ToR of your team leader and all your team members as well as key programme management frameworks: technical, financial and administrative policies and guidelines.
• Establish a good working relationship with the state finance officers, SPF.
• Establish working relationships with counterparts in PSAG pillars 1 and 3 if relevant
• Mentor other colleagues and contractors (within and outside of PERL, and across states) – direct provision of guidance and support, consistent with ECP’s key values/principles. Encourage and nurture interest in programme work shown by direct reports.
• Actively contribute to Team-Building within the state team – use of shared mission, vision, values, identity/public profile, use of staff meetings, staff welfare, social events, formal and informal opportunities, etc, to reinforce teamwork. Actively contribute to a positive office culture within the joint Palladium office in your state (if applicable), and collaborate with other programmes to ensure operational synergies. Look out for, highlight and support resolution of internal challenges impacting on team performance.

Primary Responsibilities

• Establishment of State Office Administration Systems (working with the guidelines developed from the national office and within the programme operations manual)
• Office Services - identify and ensure a reliable supply of services (including security) and utilities to the office, establish a preferred suppliers list, maintain good working relations with suppliers, and establish systems for effective monitoring of supplies (including fuel for vehicles and generators).
• Structures & Equipment - identify office space, establish tenancy agreement, maintain good working relations with proprietor, and ensure estates and facilities are properly maintained and repaired, and make purchase, maintain and repair office furniture, white goods and office equipment, including computers, through identified suppliers - including labelling and establishment of an asset register/inventory.
• Vehicles - ensure all required official vehicle documentation is up to date and available in the vehicle for inspection, systems are established and used for timely vehicle maintenance and repair and that vehicle warrantees, where applicable, do not become invalidated.

State Office Administration:

• Office Running - ensure efficient use of all office facilities including vehicles, complaint with ECP policy. Give specific attention to monitoring and analysis of fuel consumption of office vehicles and generators. Oversee housekeeping and stock-keeping of consumable items and ensure necessary supplies are maintained at minimum stock levels, including fuel and provision of staff on front desk/reception duty.
• Structure & Equipment - monitor the integrity of the property and condition of facilities and equipment, inform proprietor of required repairs, oversee/monitor repairs, and ensure asset labelling and asset register/inventory are up to date.
• Vehicle Running - co-ordinate vehicle movements based on the work schedule for the state team, and ensure all transport provisions for the state office are efficient, effective and safe:
• for car-hire: check condition of vehicles, tyres, seat-belts availability of required vehicle documentation, and the standard of driving (with support from the national office for driver training) all meet minimum requirements.
• for office vehicles: check office drivers are meeting the minimum required standards for vehicle maintenance and driving (to be checked periodically by the national office through driver training), and monitor and analyse fuel, and other consumable items, on a regular basis.

Information Management:

• Ensure effective use of internal information management systems by all state office staff, including use of filing systems, file coding, data protocols, electronic file version control and data back-up, and supervise the provision of local IT support for the state office (in close collaboration with the M&E/KM ICT Specialist).
• HR - support the National Admin Manager in providing inductions/orientations for new state team members, maintain accurate personnel records including timesheets and leave applications. These should be appropriately stored in a confidential manner in an area accessible to the NAM.
• Take minutes of general/operational staff meetings which take place at the state level and ensure that these are circulated to all staff in a timely manner.
• Compile a periodic (monthly/weekly) work schedule for the state team and circulate to all staff (via notice board/e-mail).
• Ensure that Office Health, Safety and Security (OHSS) information is displayed in an obvious position in the office in line with the guidelines laid out in the project operations manual.

State procurement, logistics and security administration:

• Manage the security of the office location, physical structure and alterations, provide oversight of security guards and track vehicle movements, all to minimum security requirements as directed by Palladium Nigeria Security Manager and in collaboration with the National Logistics and Security Manager.
• Ensure that the state programme complies with required health and safety standards (fire, personal risk, accident, etc) as defined by Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) contained in the Programme Operations Manual.
• Become well versed in DFID and their assigned procurement agents procurement regulations and systems as defined in the ECP Programme Operations Manual, and basic familiarisation and appreciation of the programme’s financial systems.
• Manage state procurement and contracting of local service providers (in close collaboration with the National Procurement & Security Manager where required) based on the decisions of the ECP State Procurement Committee, of which the SAO is both a Member and the Secretary.
• Maintain an updated preferred suppliers list (liaise with other programmes and DFID to enable comparative pricing/VfM), and select preferred local suppliers through competitive process, validated by the State Procurement Committee.
• Take stock of all stationary and office supplies and record in the ‘stock control book’ ensuring that additional stock is ordered as required.
• Liaise with staff with lead responsibility for implementation of specific programme activities to organise logistical support as required, on the basis of agreed workplans and schedules, as endorsed by the STL through minuted weekly staff meetings or via e-mail correspondence.
• Provide logistical support to all short-term TA and visitors (local, national and international): arrange ‘meet & greet’, hotel accommodation, local travel, etc, through liaison with the National Administration Manager where necessary.
• Liaise with the providers of local facilities (within and outside the state) on behalf of programme staff to secure bookings for hotels, halls, care-hire, etc, for programme events.
• Make payment to the facilities (hotels, halls, care-hire, etc) used for programme events.
• Keep a record of the adequacy of the logistical arrangements for any programme activities / TA inputs, state visits, etc - particularly where any were inadequate, with reasons and suggested improvements (informing preferred suppliers list), routinely reported to the STL, and copying in the National Administration Manager where necessary. Sort out any logistical problems arising during programme event with the facility managers and staff (back-stopping on accommodation, feeding and transport), and provide reasonable ‘customer service’ for partners.

State Finance Assistance:

• Assist the State Finance Officer with preparing the budget for programme activities for specific sub-outputs/areas of activity (using the programme budgeting templates).
• Be conversant with the budget for any programme activities in which the SPF is involved.
• Ensure attendance sheets are produced for and signed by all participants of programme events, and practical compliance with Programme Operations Manual by partners.
• Make payment to partners and for all incidentals during and immediately after programme events, ensuring all receipts are signed, including signing/counting partners in and out of accommodation, group lunches/dinners, etc.
• Comply fully with the procedures for the transportation and safe handling of funds, as defined in the project operations manual, using agreed staff support.
• Where applicable, prepare and sign off financial reports of activities to the SFO (using the agreed financial reporting templates).

Compliance:

• Other reasonable tasks/amendments to TOR.
• Agree that performance will be assessed based on these Terms of References. Any amendments to these ToRs should be discussed and agreed with your line manager.
• Understand that you will be expected to undertake any reasonable task as requested by their line manager where it is not disruptive to other duties or inappropriate for the level of this position. 

Information Management:

• Ensure that familiarity with all DFID and Palladium Policies and procedures and check SharePoint regularly to ensure that any updates are also being implemented in a timely manner.
• Ensure that all work is completed in an accountable and transparent manner, this includes the use of official emails for work purposes, use of personal emails will not be permitted. All work must be saved to the agreed cloud or central server storage systems and not individual desktops or hard-drives.

Requirements   
Education and Experience Required:

• Bachelor's degree in any subject area
• Proven ability to effectively manage an office
• Line management experience of at least 1 year

Key Competencies and Professional Expertise Required:

• Ability to work in a team
• Excellent communication skills
• Excellent organisational skills

Key Values and Behaviours Required:

• Accountability
• Sustainability
• Respectfulness & Inclusiveness
• Learning & Sharing
• Teamwork
• Adaptive and Iterative.