Director, Financial Control at Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Reference: ECW-COMM/REC/FC-D/001
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Department: Office of the Financial Controller
Directorate: Financial Control
Grade: D1
Supervisor: Financial Controller
Duration: Permanent

Job Description

• A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Statutory Appointees or D2 level Officers. Directorates are headed by Directors or Officers holding Director level positions.
• Directors or Director level Officers are responsible for providing the expertise in particular areas for the design and implementation of technical projects in line with ECOWAS objectives.
• Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution’s mandate.
• They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies, the President's and the Commissioner's broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate. D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff.
  

Duties and Responsibilities
Leadership Tasks:

• Directors or Director level Officers report directly to Departmental Heads. As the principal link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible for:
• Clearly communicating the Department’s vision to staff, explain how the Directorate’s activities aligns with them as well as ways of carrying out set tasks on it;
• Staying on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes;
• Remaining in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.

Managerial Tasks:

• The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff.
• He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.

Managerial tasks will include:

• Plan annual goals, objectives, activities and budget tied to the Department’s overall plans; and create measure and monitor goal achievement; negotiate suitable adjustments to goals and budgets;
• Implement performance-based budgeting within the Directorate;
• Organize the Directorate in an efficient way with clear reporting lines, minimal bureaucracy and optimal delegation of responsibilities and authority;
• Work with the relevant Directorate to ensure efficient and effective services such as recruitment, action on performance decisions, promotions and related matters;
• Set standards of work mechanisms to monitor staff output and ensure that standards are maintained and deadlines met without compromising quality of work;
• Manage the system of setting individual performance planning and standards through available Performance Planning and Evaluation systems;
• Provide regular and prompt performance feedback to direct reporting;
• Actively engaged in the development of staff to ensure skills are built to match plans, goals and existing structures;
• Create productive working atmosphere within the Directorate to encourages staff participation.

Use of Personal Expertise
While the Director will have a reserve of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:

• Direct technical guidance on programme design or implementation in an area where he or she has high-level technical expertise;
• Represent ECOWAS in professional meetings or working groups; make speeches, negotiate agreements, mediate disputes;
• Lead or participate in technical missions to develop projects and programmes;
• Advise on issues relating to his or her area of technical expertise;
• Work with the relevant specialized Parliamentary Committee on regional legislation, as needed.

Technical Tasks:

• The ideal candidate reports to the Financial Controller of Community Institutions and will be responsible for overseeing the pre-audit functions of the Office of the Financial Controller, while also providing organisational and administrative leadership;
• In harmony with colleagues, the Director Financial Control will supervise control functions and ensure the regularity of financial commitments in line with laid down rules and regulations;
• Ensures that expenditures in the Community Institutions are in line with their approved budgets and proper implementation of budgetary and accounting control.
• Supervises endorsement of commitment orders, contracts, payment vouchers and exercise fiduciary duty on behalf of the Financial Controller.
• Prepares and submit timely periodic reports on the financial position and other related data of Community Institutions to the Financial Controller.
• Ensures compliance with Community texts, regulations, and policies.
• Maintains high job results through coaching, counselling, and timely appraisals of reporting staff.
• Proposes policy matters as input towards the improvement of Community's management and financial performance.
• Handles any other responsibility assigned by the Financial Controller.

Qualifications/Experience/Skills
Educational Qualification

• Master's Degree (in Accounting or Finance) with membership of a Professional Accounting body recognised by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).
• A higher Degree in Accounting or Finance may substitute for two years of professional experience.

Experience:

• Twelve (12) years professional experience including six (6) years relevant international experience and five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
• Possession of higher degree would reduce the required professional experience to ten (10) years with five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity.

Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Abilities):

• Excellent flare and aptitude for technical report writing;
• Excellent command of Microsoft Office tools. Exposure to Enterprise Financial Management System, particularly SAP environment is an advantage;
• Good knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Public Sector Standards (IPSAS).
• Good communication skills for influencing groups of peers and stakeholders outside the organization (public speaking, writing, persuasiveness, credibility, negotiation, problem-solving).
• Good interpersonal social skills for working with peers and subordinate staff (listening ability, approachability, clear oral expression).
• Able team-player with peers (creates solutions to problems, creates ideas, takes on share of the work, reliable). Ability to align self and Directorate to the Community;
• Drive and energy;
• Demonstrates fairness;
• Self-control and stress management methods;
• Good personal organization with ability to prioritize comfortably, adjust to rapidly changing priorities and to manage time well;
• Ability to delegate authority clearly and effectively to staff. In particular, ability to use support staff available to the Directorate.

Age:

• Candidates should not be over 50 years old at the point of recruitment and must be citizens of one of the ECOWAS member states;

Language:

• Candidates must be fluent in one of the official languages of the Community; English, French and Portuguese. A working knowledge of another would be an advantage.

Remuneration
USD 60,372 - USD 75,005