Internal Audit and Control Specialist at Save The Children

Ref Id: 200003MK
Team / Programme: Nigeria
Contract Length: Open Ended
Employee Status: Permanent
Reports to: Internal Audit & Control Manager         
Staff directly reporting to this post: None

Child Safeguarding
Level 3:  

• The role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Role Purpose

• The Internal Audit & Control Specialist will work with the SCI Internal Audit and Control Manager to support compliance with all Save the Children and donor guidelines and policies. This will be done through evaluating the effectiveness of the governance, risk management and control systems in place in SC Nigeria.
• S/he will review, document and assess effectiveness of financial and operational controls over the SC Nigeria program administrative and project activities both at the country level and in field offices (incl. the north-eastern part of Nigeria).
• The Internal Audit & Control Specialist will undertake regular checks- process and management practice reviews, analyse- records, reports and financial statements to ascertain that adequate internal controls are in place to mitigate the risk of non-compliance with local laws, donor requirements and SCI policies and procedure.
• S/he will advise on additional controls to be put in place in any area of weakness identified to ensure the protection of the programme’s assets, funds and reputation and compliance with applicable donor guidelines and policies. This position has 50% LOE on Food for Peace Programme (a USAID funded project) in Borno State with 50% physical presence in Borno office.

Scope of Role:

• Dimensions:  Save the Children operates through 10 field bases (Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa and, Gombe, Borno, Lagos, Borno and Yobe. SC Nigeria is working with implementing partners in implementing various donor funded project (including USAID) across the country.  SC Nigeria has a total of 418 staff with about 33 finance staff. SC Nigeria has about 39 active awards with a total of $251m.
• With funding from different donors including humanitarian donors such as OFDA, FFP and ECHO, the Country program has been scaling up on humanitarian program in the North-east focusing on food assistance, non-food items distribution, protection, cash distribution livelihoods support, WASH and capacity building of humanitarian response actors in order to reach more beneficiaries with additional and varied assistance.
• Staff Working Closely with: All Department Heads, Program Managers/Budget Holders, Area/Field Office Managers, all SCI Nigeria and Regional office staff (as appropriate), SCI Member staff, SCI Global Assurance department and Regional fraud unit team.

Travels:

• The position will be based in Abuja, but will require frequent travel (50%) between field locations including north –east of Nigeria where we have humanitarian response programs.

Key Areas of Accountability

• On a sample basis, carry out a regularly reviews of financial, procurement/logistic, HR and program transactions, ensuring documentation supporting the transactions are in compliance with Save the Children policies and procedures, grant agreements and donor regulations both at the country and field offices.
• Conducting spot-audits tests on donor requirement compliance in finance, Human resources, award, logistics, operations and programme (activities, documentation and reporting).
• Assist IA&C Manager in regularly updating in-country risk assessments and follow up to confirm implementation of mitigating measures.
• Lead on fraud investigations as may be assigned, diligently document all relevant evidence and report consistent with SCI standards through the Internal Audit & Control Manager to Country Director and SCI Fraud team.  
• Work closely with programme development unit to further a risk aware and responsive culture in designing and developing potential high risk awards.
• Plan, conduct and lead audits and follow up on all internal and external audit action plans and provide periodic updates on actions taken.
• Assist the IA&C Manager in ensuring SCI Global Assurance Audit findings are tracked and closed on the MKinsight audit platform.
• S/he will serve as a liaison for external audit and regulatory agencies as may be assigned by the IA& C Manager.
• Assist in performing internal control reviews of in-country processes including cash and advance management, procurement, logistics, Programs- documentation and reporting, Data quality Assurance of M& E (Monitoring and Evaluation) data source documents, stock ( incl. food commodities), beneficiaries and food vendors management, assets management etc. (in line with the annual IAC work plan). Coordinate with the relevant departments to come up with actionable recommendations to improve any identified weaknesses
• Work with the IA&C Manager to flag significant internal control weaknesses to the country management, with actionable recommendations to reinforce those weak controls and support the monitoring of compliance with approved reinforcing controls.
• Track and age all the findings consistent with agreed implementation timelines and follow-up to confirm implemented actions.
• Maintain good working relationships with all SCI stakeholders- staff, vendors, auditors, implementing partners) through effective communication and exercising professional conduct and objectivity
• Deliver training as required to reinforce internal controls, risk mitigation, anti-corruption, fraud and anti-terrorism financing awareness and prevention.
• Carry out any other responsibility delegated within the role of internal audit and control duties.

Behaviours (Values In Practice):
Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

Additional job responsibilities

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities:

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

• We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

• The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy

Health and Safety:

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Qualifications And Experience
Essential:

• A graduate of finance, accounting or a related business field is required with professional qualification-ACA,ACCA or CPA)
• 5 years+ related work experience with a not-for-profit organization;
• Strong background in compliance accounting and internal controls; experience in auditing (internal or external experience)
• Extensive experience in relevant operational areas (e.g. in programme/project management in an INGO context) and experience of risk-based auditing.
• Be highly accurate, detail-orientated, and able to complete multiple projects, with conflicting priorities, on a timely basis
• Excellent report English writing skills
• Proven  interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and relationship building
• Willingness to undertake high amount of travel within the NIGERIA SCI field locations (50%) and work with minimum supervision under difficult conditions in some of the most underdeveloped, insecure and remote parts of NIGERIA.
• Strong cultural awareness and be able to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Demonstrate standards of ethics and integrity
• Commitment to Save the Children values

Desirable:

• INGO experience or have worked in a commercial/public sector international organisation
• Familiarity with grant requirements of major donors such as USAID, EC/ECHO,FFP,OFDA, DfID and the UN
• Good financial analysis aptitude
• Experience of Agresso financial software or other ERP softwares
• Experience of audit
• Counter fraud and investigation experience
• Ability to look at the bigger picture when assessing organisational performance and risk

The Organisation

• We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated
• We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.  We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.