Finance Officer -Partner/Budget/Reporting and Compliance at Save the Children International

Title: Finance Officer -Partner/Budget/Reporting and Compliance

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Zambia Finance Team

LOCATION: Lusaka

GRADE: NAT 4

POST TYPE: National

Safeguarding :

Save the Children does not tolerate any form of exploitation, abuse, or harassment against any person. It is the responsibility of all employees and representatives to protect all people who come in contact with our organization. Save the Children commits to applying the same standards to all its employees and subject them to the same processes regardless of their position, influence, or reputation within or outside of the organization.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Save the Children International’s Diversity Policy, aims to promote equal opportunity in employment and to ban any kind of discrimination based on sex, age, social class, disability, HIV status, religion, race and ethnicity.

ROLE PURPOSE:

To implement financial procedures and policies of Save the Children and be responsible for preparing financial statements, maintaining cash controls, maintaining accounts payable and processing of payments under the awards. The Finance officer will also be responsible for the overall award budgeting, donor reporting, financial and partner compliance aspects. The post holder ensures high quality services to Partners are in line with SCI Policies and Procedures.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Finance Coordinator.

Staff directly reporting to this post: None.

Budget responsibility: None

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Budget Preparation, Management and Monitoring

Responsible for the overall day-to-day activities of budgeting, donor reporting and Partnership unit.

support the development of cost proposals for new programs as well as for existing grant modifications by ensuring all relevant stakeholders are involved in the budgeting process.

Maintains information on budget availability for all grants.

Ensures budgets in BVA report are updated on a periodic basis.

Produces high-quality Budget vs. Actuals (BvA) analyses to support budget holders in their budget management.

Participate in monthly budget monitoring meetings, identifying any areas of slow or fast burn rates or other challenges. Ensures all follow actions are addressed after the BvA meetings.

Provides advice/training to budget holders on budget management and budget phasing

Partner/ Contract Management

Advises budget holders on how best to utilise a programme’s funding portfolio.

Ensures donor regulations are communicated to all staff and that all activities meet donor requirements.

Ensures all donor financial reports are submitted in a timely fashion without any delays.

Lead on award close out processes and reconciliation (financial aspects only).

Collects and reviews financial reports from partners and ensures they are of quality and compliant with donor regulations.

Provides capacity strengthening of partners to meet donor rules and regulations.

Monitors the financial performance of the partners and ensures they are compliant with donor rules and regulations.

Submit timely quality reports for donor reporting.

Sub-award management

Responsible for the financial aspects of partnership management.

Reviews potential sub-grantees’ proposals and budgets.

Participates in the process of awarding sub-grants/sub-contracts.

Organize/provide necessary technical assistance/capacity building trainings to cover finance capacity gaps identified.

Reviews sub-grantees / sub-contractors financial reports and ensure all variances between the budgets and actuals have been properly explained.

Conducts field visits to sub-grantees to check the financial report supporting documents.

Ensures compliance with all donor requirements and advises budget holders on compliance issues.

Ensures donor regulations are communicated to partner staff, and all activities meet donor requirements.

Lead on sub-award and sub-award close out processes and reconciliation.

Monitors the financial implementation of the Project by partners and troubleshoots and remedies issues arising.

Compliance

Ensures compliance with all donor requirements and advises budget holders on compliance issues.

Ensure all payments to Partners are correctly coded, approved and support documents attached.

To provide financial analysis on Partner advance payment and expenditure on a monthly and advice to the Project Team in a timely fashion in any Partner is lagging behind in terms of Liquidation (e.g. inform Project Team of potential problems and issues requiring discussion and /or action)

Accountable for implementing SCI Zambia Country office finance manual and strengthen internal control systems accordingly as regards Partner management.

To ensure that accounting procedures and policies are being adhered to; that internal controls for Partner Organization exist to reduce financial risk;

Review and conduct monthly reconciliations of staff of Partner advance account and Debtors, balance Sheet accounts to identify any material differences and discrepancies in the accounts and ensure necessary adjustments are done to make the relevant corrections.

Advise and assist program staff in grants compliance requirements. Work with Program staff to build strong contract compliance management systems for the project.

Ensure that payments and Journals are authorized in line SCI, donor and National laws and regulations.

Review of the reclassifications proposed by program staff for eligibility in line with donor regulations and in line with Save the Children Financial policies.

Review expenses on a monthly basis to ensure the correctness of booking/coding, eligibility and compliance with the donor policies and procedures.

Other Responsibilities

Assists in preparation of all documents for audits and facilitates the work of the auditors in-country.

Regularly familiarizes themselves with relevant local laws including taxation and social security laws and serves as a resource for the office on such laws.

Regularly familiarizes themselves with donor requirements on grants and contracts and serves as a resource for budget holders on these donor requirements.

Review Monthly cash projections on budget availability for the project

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our 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 others to do the same.

Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.

Future orientated, thinks strategically.

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

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

BS in Accounting/Finance or any other related Fields

Recommended 4+ years of relevant work experience in budgeting and budget management, especially on finances/grants management in an international organisation

Excellent analytical skills – the ability to analyse complex financial data and design and produce effective management information.

Previous experience with various donor’s financial policies and guidelines including USAID, CDC, Europe Aid, Sida, CIDA, UNICEF, UNHCR, ECHO, and other institutional donors.

Understanding of financial systems and procedures.

Experience of computerised accounts packages, Excel, PowerPoint and Word.

Good sense of responsibility.

Excellent organizational & communications skills

Good proficiency in spoken and written English

Good computer skills especially in spreadsheet & data analysis (excel & access) and familiarity with accounting software is preferred.

Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours, and work with incoming teams in the event of major emergencies

Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles including rights-based approaches

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