Senior Finance Assistant (E T Temporary) at World Bank Group

Duties and Responsibilities

Payments, Asset and Fund management:

•  Process timely payments runs for non-Chennai vendors and follow up any queries.
•  Process staff loans, travel advance, rental advance requests.
•  Periodic oversight on Country Office P-Card, and Travel Cards to ensure correct use and compliance with policy.
•  Process payroll adjustments in SAP.
•  Ensure the booking of accruals and prepayments entries.
•  Review E-payable transactions via the workflow and ensure compliance of the requests, and correctness of the entries.
•  Monitor admin portal purchase order and STC transactions. 
•  Monitor and ensure replenishment of funds in the Country Office bank account.
•  Perform journal adjustment entries.
•  Ensure signatories and certificate of designations are up to date.
•  Ensure the segregation of duty in the petty cash management and petty cash counts are done.
•  Conduct annual physical asset inventory count and update SAP asset records.
•  Ensure the compliance of the fixed asset entry and disposal process as per the policies.
•  Ensure the correct and timely posting of MOU charges by IBRD RM team.

Monitoring & Reporting: 

•  Prepare and submit Monthly Statement Report in the COAP portal while ensuring the accuracy of the Business Area Master and Business Area Contact.
•  Perform monthly bank reconciliation as well as open items and outstanding items follow up.
•  Prepare the country office budget reports with variance analysis. Monitor and analyze expenses.
•  Prepare quarterly centralized overheads forecast template.
•  Follow up for timely submission of SOE and monitor rental contracts.
•  Provide ad-hoc reports at the request of the management (travel, SAP profiles, unreconciled PCARD statement etc.).
•  Ensure closure of purchase orders with balances after completion of transactions. 

Other Responsibilities:

•  Provide Advisory to the Head of the Country Office and staff on WBG financial and administrative policies and procedures as well as assistance on benefits policies and related issues.
•  Perform knowledge sharing sessions with staff on policies and procedures and ensure these are communicated and implemented.
•  Onboard new staff members on finance related matters, systems, travel, policies and perform interim support for colleagues when necessary.
•  Enhancing controls and advise other finance staff in the region on best practices.
•  Providing guidance to vendors as well as other staff on tools (myTravel, admin portal, vendor kiosk portal etc).
•  Respond to scorecard / quality assurance / IRI / audit queries as needed and implement the action plan.
•  Conduct an annual IRI / ORM self-assessment on the Country Office.
•  Ensure proper filing of all documents as per the record retention policy. 
•  Liaison with Chennai: Imprest / Payroll / SRS / Travel audit / accounts payable / RM etc.
•  Liaison with IBRD colleagues on various topics (cost sharing etc)
•  Liaison with banks in connection with IFC Corporate account.
•  Follow up of staff termination process with HR team (financial aid balance reimbursement, return of UNLP, cancellation of PCard etc).

Selection Criteria

•  Bachelor`s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business or Economics with at least 3 years of working experience as finance assistant or experience in country office accounting. 
•  Recognized professional certification on basic level (CPA, CMA, CIMA, ACCA, etc.) is a plus.
•  Sound knowledge and understanding of accounting theory, concepts and principles, financial accounting reporting, budgeting, and cost allocations.
•  Ability to analyze and synthesize information, interpret data, retrieve information, and clearly and concisely communicate result. Good data mining skills with working knowledge of Microsoft Package.
•  Prior experience in ERP applications (SAP) is a significant advantage.
•  Strong communication skills with the ability to prepare, present and discuss findings in written or oral form. 
•  Excellent interpersonal skills and team player, with the ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.
•  Fluency in English is essential. 
•  Ability to manage multiple, concurrent tasks with tight deadlines.
•  Ability to function effectively in multi-disciplinary teams within a matrix management environment.