Administration and Finance Project Manager At Mentor Initiative

The MENTOR Initiative (‘MENTOR’) is a humanitarian organisation specialising in disease control and improving access to healthcare in emergency settings across countries in Africa, the Middle East and South America. MENTOR is the leading organisation dedicated to the control of malaria and other vector borne diseases in complex, challenging settings.

MENTOR delivers large scale disease control interventions working with remote and underserved communities affected by emergencies such as conflict and natural disasters. We also help build the technical and operational capacity of local and international partners to incorporate medium- and long-term disease control systems into their operations and country strategy.

The Administration and Finance Project Manager will assist the MENTOR Initiative Central African Republic programme in achieving project objectives in a timely manner and support the project manager CO with the strategic development of responses to identified needs on the ground and donor funding opportunities. The consultant will establish, update and maintain the organisation’s standardised financial, administrative and human resource systems and processes in CAR, and will ensure the implementation of these at all levels of the organisation’s country programmes. In this context, the Finance and Admin project CO is part of the country project management team.

Reports and information when required will be submitted to the project manager CO in Bangui.

Job requirements:

– At least 4 years of experiences as Administration and Finance Project Manager in emergency settings, including direct experience of security management

– Familiar with NGO working environments and standard procedures

– Familiar with donors procedures

– Solid prior experience working in complicated security contexts will be an advantage

– Language: Fluent in English and French

– Organised and good coordination / project management skills

– Excellent communication skills

– Proven capacity to train others

Project Financial management

• Ensure that good quality finance and administration systems as per the standard MENTOR Initiative guidelines are functioning and maintained in the program and across all bases.
• Ensure correct account management for all grants in accordance with the grant agreement(s)
• Supervise and provide training on finance and administration procedures to the concerned staff members in the MENTOR Initiative
• Supervise the use and understanding of the MENTOR accountancy software by the concerned staff (local and international) in each field base.
• Ensure that all members of the MENTOR team are trained in and respect the MENTOR Finance and Administration procedures.
• Prepare monthly electronic and paper reports on expenditure against project budget(s) and send these together to the MENTOR Initiative Finance/Administrative Coordinator/Grants Management Team at HQ level.
• Prepare monthly budget control overviews for each base in the mission
• Support the mission with ensuring compliance with all Grant agreements for financial reporting and procurement. This includes field level compliance to all legal aspects of the grant agreement
• On the basis of cash available in-country, planned expenditure and budget available, ensure that regular Requests for Cash Advances are sent to the Bases based on Request.
• Overall responsible for salary / fee payments to all local team members including daily workers as required.
• Overall responsibility for distributing ICLA and security cash (when required) to international team members as well as reimbursement of approved expenses.
• Maintain a MENTOR bank account in the programme country
• Attend monthly finance coordination meetings with other NGOs
• Follow-up and control all local Tax payments (IRIS, IRPP, CNSS, ACFPE and others)
• Support all Audit efforts and the supporting documentation process both in soft and hard copies

Administration

• Follow up on all rental agreements for the MENTOR Initiative guesthouse(s), office(s), and vehicles, etc. and renew rental agreements when necessary
• Follow up on government demands and decrees that have direct impact on the mission’s work.
• When necessary, follow-up on the MENTOR Initiative’s registration in country with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other local actors
• Assists in external meetings (administration and Human Resource cluster, NGO forum etc) to represent The MENTOR Initiative when necessary. Minutes of meetings are to be set up and shared afterwards.
• Assist the Finance/Administrative Coordinator with any other administrative tasks as required

Human Resources

• Responsible for all administrative aspects of local staff recruitment. This includes set up of non- technical job descriptions and assisting with the editing of technical job descriptions, posting adverts, organizing interviews, etc.
• Ensure that standard salary scale and per diem polices are in place and updated regularly upon validation by the CMT and HQ.
• Ensure compliance with all local government taxation and labour regulations concerning employment contracts.
• Overseethat national staff adheres to The MENTOR Initiative contracts, Safeguarding policies, Code of conduct, conflict of interest and internal rules.
• Chair monthly meetings with national staff and follow up on demands and suggestions
• Assist in monthly meetings with national staff delegates
• In collaboration with the Finance/Administrative Coordinator and other line managers, ensure that international team members respect internal rules and policies in relation to the management of national staff under their responsibility.
• Responsible for all expat administration including the role as focal point for international flights, holiday planning.
• Focal point, in cooperation with the Finance/Administrative Coordinator, for the national labour inspection (including for all legal complaints issued by national staff)

Programme Support

• Assist the Team with writing of Memorandums of Understanding
• When required, represent the MENTOR Initiative in external coordination meetings (including donor related meetings)
• At the request of the Head of Mission/ Finance/Administrative Coordinator, provide finance/admin and/or human resources support during field or assessment missions.

Reporting / Proposal writing

• Advise and assist the Coordination team in the creation of viable new proposals and budgets
• In link with the Coordination team, draft budget proposals based on current and planned expenditure, within the donor template and send it to the Country Management Team for approval before submission.
• Support in the preparation of the financial reports to donors so that these are prepared and submitted in a timely manner, as per the grant agreements.

Participate in the elaboration of regular internal situation reports (‘sitreps’) for subjects directly related to the responsibilities of the Administration and Finance Project Manager.