Compliance Officer at Norwegian Church Aid ('NCA')

BACKGROUND 
Norwegian Church Aid ('NCA') is a member of the ACT Alliance and works with people and local actors, especially Faith-based actors in many countries where it works in their struggle to eradicate poverty and injustices. We provide humanitarian assistance in disasters and work for long-term development in local communities and societies. In order to address the root causes of poverty, we advocate for just decisions by public authorities, businesses and religious leaders.

NCA has a presence in Nigeria to respond to the Humanitarian crisis in Northeast Nigeria and had program Emergency WASH response in the Cross-River states. NCA has its core competencies in Water Sanitation and Hygiene –WASH, Gender Based Violence with mainstreamed Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health. NCA has its strengths in works and invest in local partners ensures their capacities are built from the onset of response, in order to enable them to have the capacity to respond in a long-term intervention including recovery and development.

Brief description of the post

The role of Compliance Officer is critical to program implementation, with the focus on strengthening systems and reducing financial and operational risks in the Nigeria country and partner-led programmes.

Specific objectives of mission (objectives, scope and deliverables) Max 7 or less.

Objective 1

Strategic Risk and Compliance Management

Objective 2

Audit management and donor compliance

Objective 3

Coordination of Capacity Building for Compliance

Roles and responsibilities (specific tasks, coordination etc...)

Objective 1. Strategic Risk and Compliance Management

• Support Management to oversee internal controls in place, effectively work and ensure NCA’s policies and donor regulations are being followed in the country office, including by, partners and other program participants.

Support management to keep updated consolidated country risk matrix and to keep track of progress/implementation on the recommendation by external & internal auditors.

• Collaborate with support function manager to ensure compliance with local laws both at the federal and state levels.

Review NCA’s global policies and procedures and make recommendations to management to enforce those policies and procedures as applicable to Nigeria context.

• Track and review procurement processes and follow up in consultation with Logistics team, budget holders and programme teams to ensure procurements are carried out in line with policies.

Support the Country Finance department in the establishment of a practical system for compliance risk detection in financial transactions.

• Ensure that Country Office complies with statutory returns, reports and taxation policy.
• Support to Conduct ad-hoc and confidential investigations on control breaches, as may be necessary from time to time.

Objective 2: Audit Management and donor compliance 

Conduct internal audit to ensure the organization is always audit ready and provide technical guidance and support in preparing for and managing donor audits.

• Conduct periodic spot checks to ensure internal controls are working effectively and to ensure optimum compliance and adherence to NCA and donor guidelines.
• Review management comments for audit reports and work with CD to monitor progress on work plans for implementation of audit recommendations from internal and external audits.
• Ensure external audits follow NCA guidelines for financial audit as per Operations Manual.
• Guide the annual audit plan development.
• Monitor implementation of action/corrective action plans relative to both internal and external audits.
• Document observations regarding activities and transactions to be audited highlighting potential areas of compliance weakness, risks and discrepancies.
• Develop a monthly monitoring/spot-checking/compliance and internal audit work plans to be implemented. 

Objective 3: Coordination and Capacity Building

• Conduct regular monitoring visits to Implementing Partner organizations to assess adequacy of internal controls, verify the availability of proper records for all financial transactions, and advise partner and NCA management on recommended actions.
• Prepare and conduct training for staff and partners as part of the strategy to build the country program’s compliance capacity.
• Conduct induction for new hire to ensure staff fully understand their compliance related obligation.
• Work with managers and other staff in a collaborative and coordinated way to ensure compliance level is improved through teamwork.
• Assist and guide the management team in the implementation of new systems, tools, policies, and processes in contribution to donor and internal compliance.
• Drive operational improvement throughout the organization to improve overall efficiency and internal controls.
• Coordinate post-incident analysis and document lessons learned.

Experience, Qualifications and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Economics or any other related field, professional qualification preferred.
• Minimum of Three (3) years of relevant and progressive experience in compliance or internal audit, additional experience in an audit firm and/or in the humanitarian sector will be preferred.
• Certified member of an Accounting or Audit professional body.
• Good understanding of Nigerian laws as well as general donor compliance rules and regulations required.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (written and verbal English) and the ability to write clear, concise reports.
• A strong commitment to high standards of service delivery and operational procedures.
• Good organisational and personal management skills, with ability to prioritise work issues to meet deadlines with minimal supervision and adjust to constantly changing situations and demanding pace of work.
• Abilily to work under pressure and express independent opinion to senior management.
• Ability to build and maintain collaborative work relationships across teams and partners.
• Strong Analytical and ICT skills, especially the use of excel, are required.

NCA’S COMMITMENTS

NCA is committed to following the following policies, standards and commitments and all staff are equally expected to conform to their requirements:

• Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS)
• Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief
• ACT Alliance Code of Conduct
• SPHERE Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Relief
• NCA Nigeria Security Plan
• NCA Nigeria Staff Handbook
• NCA Global Operations Manual 

Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Actively promote PSEA (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse) standards within Norwegian Church Aid and amongst beneficiaries served by Norwegian Church Aid. 

Compliance & Ethics

Promotes and encourages a culture of compliance and ethics within Norwegian Church Aid. As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of Norwegian Church Aid’ and donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conducts work with the highest level of integrity. Communicates these values to staff and to partners and requires them to adhere to these values.