Senior Budget Officer at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Responsibilities:

Budgetary Management

• Carry out strategic financial planning and management of UNEP financial resources in accordance with UNEP and UN financial rules.
• Coordinate submission of biennial Programme of Work (PoW) budget and Regular Budget to the UNEP Governing Council and General Assembly.
• Ensures legislative mandates are accurately translated into programme budgets; plans and co-ordinates review of budget submissions.
• Reviews, analyses and finalizes cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements; ensures compliance with the medium-term plan and other legislative mandates.
• Manages/issues allotments, authorizes sub-allotments, including redeployment of funds when necessary, ensuring appropriate expenditures.
• Monitors expenditures to ensure that they remain within authorized levels.
• Administers and monitors extra-budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.
• Oversees the review and finalization of budget performance reports; monitors variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures.
• Prepares/finalizes reports for intergovernmental bodies and for management on budgetary issues, and correspondence, including guidelines, instructions.
• Acts as Certifying Officer under Financial Rules to ensure that proposed obligations and expenditures are in accordance with budgets and established regulations and rules.

Finance & Accounting

• Oversees the financial function of the Organization which includes a number of different and diverse operations and interrelated accounts of the financial system. The incumbent is expected to review the operational objectives and related financial policies and procedures affecting the Organization's accounting and financial systems. S/he also takes the lead in designing and implementing required changes.
• Ensures that UNEP's financial statements are International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) compliant.
• Directs the agile implementation of upgrades to the various modules the system.
• Keeps up to date with new IPSAS policies and implements in conjunction with UNON.
• Liaises with UNON, Administrative/Fund Management Officers (A/FMOs), and auditors as required to identify and resolve finance issues. Provide support and guidance on financial aspects of legal agreements.
• Ensures the financial data integrity of Umoja and the controls that underpin them.
• Reviews UNEP financial statements and provides authoritative advice to UNEP Senior Management including financial interpretations, adaptations and corrective actions in response to audits and other queries to ensure adherence to Financial Regulations and Rules, Staff Rules, Administrative Instructions, Bulletins and Circulars.
• Leads team members' efforts to collect and analyze data and provides insight to identify trends or patterns for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting. Ensures that everyone can discover, access, integrate and share the data they need.

Competencies

• PROFESSIONALISM: Knowledge of financial and budgetary principles and practices, budget management and financial administration of resources. Proven analytical skills and ability to provide technical advice in budget management to managers. Ability to manage a programme in a field operation and formulate new strategies and approaches to budget management issues. Shows pride in work and in achievements; Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; Is motivated by professional ratherthan personal concerns; Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; Remains calm in stressful situations; Ability to analyze and interpret data in support of decision-making and convey resulting information to management.
• ACCOUNTABILITY: Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honours commitments; Delivers outputs for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; Operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules; Supports subordinates, provides oversight and takes responsibility for delegated assignments; Takes personal responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable.
• TEAMWORK: Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals. Solicits input by genuinely valuing others' ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others. Places team agenda before personal agenda. Supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position. Shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.
• LEADERSHIP: Serves as a role model that other people want to follow: empowers others to translate vision into results; Is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives; Establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support; anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions; Drives for change and improvements; Does not accept the status quo; Shows the courage to take unpopular stands. Provides leadership and takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work; Demonstrates knowledge of strategies and commitment to the goal of gender balance in staffing.
• JUDGEMENT/DECISION-MAKING: Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; Gathers relevant information before making a decision; Considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; Takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization; Proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information; Checks assumptions against facts; Determines the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision; Makes tough decisions when necessary.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in business administration, finance, accounting or related field is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Job - Specific Qualification

• Certification as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) or equivalent is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in finance, administration, programme management, business administration or related area is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years relevant experience in implementing, applying, and contributing to development of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) is required.
• A minimum of 5 years of hands-on, practical experience with preparing annual financial statements for large international organizations involving multiple sources of funds is required.
• Minimum five (5) years of supervising and managing a team of accounting professionals involved in each of the following areas:  resource mobilization, implementing partners management, grant management, certifying officer responsibilities is required.
• Minimum of 3 years relevant experience in conceptualizing, preparing, and defending policy and administrative decisions/guidance to diverse inter-governmental bodies in support of negotiations and international environmental agreements is required.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in reviewing and advising on financial implications of terms and conditions of legal agreements with host countries, donors and UN Agencies is desirable.
• Minimum of 2 years experience in developing, building capacity and delivery of training on financial and legal arrangements with project implementing partners is desirable.
• Experience with use of finance modules in an ERP system, , including analysis of accounting data and creation of management reports using Business Intelligence tools, is desirable.
• Experience in performing analysis, reviewing, and designing tailored donor reports is desirable.
• Experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the post advertised, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.
• NOTE: ''Fluency'' equals a rating of ''fluent'' in all four areas (read, write, speak, understand) and ''Knowledge of'' equals a rating of ''confident'' in two of the four areas.