Senior Finance and Adminstration Officer - WC Cluster at The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Vacancy No: IFRC02162
Duration:09 months
Category of Staff: National Staff

Job Purpose

• Under the supervision of the Finance and Administration Delegate, the incumbent is responsible for providing high level support to the West Coast Cluster Office on financial management issues to ensure efficient and effective running of the West Coast Cluster Office on day-to-day operations.
• This includes focus on institutional donor funded projects such as ECHO, USAID, EC, SIDA (through Swedish RC) and all the other institutional donor funded projects.

Job Duties and Responsibilities
Internal Control and Risk Management:

• Ensure that all the offices’ bonafide transactions are appropriately processed into CODA using the correct project, account, activity and donor code. Thereafter ensure monthly closure of accounts within  deadlines and the preparation of the office cash request.
• Coordinate all work that will easily facilitate and enhance successful audit of the regional office operations and programs.
• Ensure that program advances to the NS are controlled and cleared with acceptable documentation and vouchers. This will involve monitoring and audit trail work from time to time.
• Perform delegated responsibilities on all financial matters to ensure that internal control is in line and effective as .
• Ensure proper maintenance of office equipment as well as the provision of office consumables.
• Be responsible for the finance and administration control environment for the Cluster office.
• Conduct surprise cash counts to ensure proper cash controls are in place.
• Support the regional finance and administration manager to review local administration policies and contract negotiation, seeking technical support from the finance analyst.

Financial Reporting:

• Prepare accurate, regular and timely donor financial reports
• Review and analyze the monthly financial analysis report prepared and take appropriate measures to clear issues of concern.
• Identify and discuss donor financial reports monthly with the budget holders and program staff and develop a plan of action to address any issues identified
• Alert program managers on due financial reports and any follow ups that might be  to be done with the national society (NS).
• Review financial reports submitted by the NS, identify and query any anomalies.

Audit and Compliance:

• Perform the month end petty cash reconciliation and ensure that the cash account statement is supported by a CODA print out
• Perform bank reconciliation of all the accounts, check and ensure that all the daily bank register is updated by the cashier
• Implementation of audit findings for the cluster touching on finance & administration.
• Be responsible for implementation of all finance & administration policies and procedures in the cluster.
• Review all documents for compliance check and authorize only if there is full compliance.
• Support the Regional finance unit (RFU) to oversee the implementation of audit improvement recommendations as and when pointed out.
• Provide financial management support and advise to budget holders/project managers.

Financial Management:

• Coordinate all cash requests for the cluster after which consolidate the cash request before onward submission to the regional finance analyst
• Regularly ensure all program budgets are prioritized in line with available funding and ensure that all budgets and project expenditure approval requests(PEAR) is established.
• Review the payroll coding and cluster staff and advice the regional finance unit (RFU).
• Validate the monthly payroll before onward processing for payment.
• Review and analyze the monthly financial reports and take appropriate measures to clear issues of concern.

Monitoring:

• Monitor NS advances and ensure timely reporting.
• Follow up on dormant working advance (WA) by working closely with the NS finance team

Emergency Preparedness and Response:

• Support in the preparation of emergency and DREF budgets

National Society Development:

• Support financial development for the NS as and when necessary.
• Ensure advances to the NS are controlled and cleared with acceptable documentation and vouchers.
• In consultation with the finance analyst, propose and support NS development initiatives.

Procurement:

• Conduct 100% check on all cluster procurements and only authorize payment after ensuring compliance to IFRC policies.
• Alert the finance analyst for any anomalies noted

Requirements
Education:

• Master’s degree in Business Administration or any other relevant fields
• Full professional accountancy qualification (CPA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent and knowledge of accounting soft-wares)

Experience:

• 7 years’ experience in finance and administration management, accounting, and audit and risks management
• Previous experience working for the Federation and/or National Society or a comparable International organisation Preferred
• Experience in managing and developing teams
• Practical knowledge of computers (Windows, spreadsheets, word processing, e-mail, Accounting and Financial software)
• Experience in setting up and/or rolling out systems to enhance Administrative processes
• Experience in training financial and non-financial staff on financial matters
• Experience in writing narrative and Financial reports
• Strong communication and administrative skills specifically, in office management

Knowledge, skills and languages:

• High degree of integrity, discretion and personal conduct
• Flexible and adaptable to changing working conditions
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills
• Ability to prioritise, meet deadlines and work under pressure
• Excellent staff management skills
• Self-Motivated, proactive with good judgement and initiative
• Fluently spoken and written English
• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic) Preferred

Competencies and values:

• High level of attention to detail
• Able to prioritise and meet deadlines
• Sensitive to cultural diversity
• Excellent staff management skills
• Advanced verbal and written communication skills
• Self-motivated with good judgement and initiative