Finance Officer – National Position at Lutheran World Federation

Place of Assignment:               Kakuma Area Program

Reports directly to:                   Area Program Manager

Reports indirectly to:                Finance Manager 

Supervises:                               Accountants and Assistant Accountants

JOB PURPOSE:

The Finance Officer’s role is to ensure the financial integrity of the Area Program, overseeing a budget of around €5.5 million, ensuring internal control are in place, and ensuring that accounting systems including budgeting, forecasting, sub-grants, expenditure tracking, are maintained to provide the information required for planning, monitoring and reporting for Area program operations in accordance with the LWF policies and donor guidelines.

Key Deliverables:

• Work with program staff in preparing and / or revising project budgets and verifies their accuracy and suitability to support new proposals or modifications while ensuring adequate coverage of project operations and HQ costs.
• Prepares and submits realistic and timely cash flow projections to the Finance Manager in consultation with the Program staff, Area Program Manager, and notifies the Finance Manger of impending cash flow shortages; Controls expenditures at Area program to ensure that they are made in line with donor requirements and established LWF guidelines, procedures, cash flow projections requests, and availability of funds;
• Ensures that the account records for all Area program financial transactions of the projects are updated daily in line with LWF/WS financial procedures and guidelines; Ascertains that vouchers and claims at the Area Program level are correct, with appropriate supporting documents attached before submitting them for authorization or endorsement by the Area Program Manager; Compiles a monthly summary/analysis of staff timesheets to allow for the production of  the monthly journal of Area Program staff recharges to projects; Supervise the preparations of all Area program transaction summaries and ledger entries for posting in the SAGE Accounting System;
• Prepares monthly financial management and monitoring reports on project implementation and expenditure for the Area program (including cash analysis, bank reconciliation statements, and monthly income and expenditure statements of the project), and submits such accounting information to Head Office to enable the production of monthly program financial reports for submission to the donors and LWF Headquarters;
• In Consultation with Senior Finance Officer, ensures that all balance sheet items (i.e. cash accounts, bank accounts, personal accounts, debtors, creditors, payroll accounts, etc.) have been reconciled, and a report shared; Ensures that all Area program staff settle outstanding advances in time, and that staff accounts are settled at termination of service; Liaises with banks, statutory agencies, tax authorities, and other financial institutions to ensure that financial position, legal obligations and liabilities are in good standing;
• Ensure that the daily cash counts are carried out; Checks cash and bank books on a daily basis to establish funds position, and carries out spot checks to ensures cash-at-hand corresponds with book balance prior to signing the cash balance form at accounts close of business; Keeps the cash box and other valuable documents (such as cheque books) in the safe, and undertakes secure custody of the safe keys and contents therein at all times; Ensures that procedures for electronic data storage, backup, and security are followed in compliance with the LWF/DWS Finance Manual;
• Maintains and enforces compliance with internal control systems for receipts and expenditures of funds and all Area program financial transactions in accordance with LWF financial policies, guidelines and procedures, reviewing them periodically and where necessary consulting the Finance Manager with a view to improving their efficiency and effectiveness; Ensures that any cases of fraud, deceit, scams, financial discrepancies, or errors are promptly reported and dealt with accordingly;
• Facilitates and coordinates spot checks, verifications and audits; readily avails relevant documents; Ensures that relevant documents for impending audits are readily available, that prompt responses to audit queries are made in consultation with the, Area Program Manager, and Finance Manager and follows-up to implement recommendations made by both internal and external auditors;
• Participates as a member of the Procurement Committee at the Area Program level; Reviews purchase orders and draft contract agreements and checks them against funds available prior to approval; Checks all supplies requisitions before the Area Program Manager’s authorization, ensures that coding of all financial transactions is correct, and that purchases are carried out in accordance with the LWF policies and guidelines on procurement;
• Ensure capacity building Area Program Finance staff; Provide input to the Finance Manager in identifying training needs in the area of Budgeting and project management for non-finance staff and lead refresher trainings for both program and finance staff to ensure that they are aware of their roles and responsibilities and are updated with new procedures on all financial management and donor guidelines for grants implemented in the area program.
• Carry out any other duties assigned by Area Program Manager and or the Finance Manager.

PERSON SPECIFICATIONS:

Minimum Qualifications:

• University degree in business administration or commerce with accounting bias is essential.
• Full professional accounting qualification (ACCA, CPA, etc) is desirable.
• Computer literacy and proficiency in accounting software package(s).
• Certificate in supervisory skills, people management and/or leadership skills is desirable.

 Experience:

• Minimum of five (5) years’ experience in project finance management positions in an international NGO with a multi-million dollar scope.
• At least three (3) years’ experience in complex planning, financial reporting, review, analysis and budgeting processes including the ability to provide clear guidance on donor policies and procedures working with donor funded contracts such as EU, ECHO, DFID, BPRM, USAID and UN.

 Personal Attributes:

• High integrity, self-driven and able to set own work schedule with rigorous deadlines.
• Ability to initiate and complete assignments and to work under demanding circumstances with minimal supervision.
• Strong organization, supervisory, problem-solving, interpersonal, communication as well as team building and negotiation skills.
• Knowledge of one of the local languages.