Risk and Compliance Senior Officer At Catholic Relief Services

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, peacebuilding and climate resilience.

CRS Philippines was established in 1945 and is the longest-running CRS country program in the world. Currently, CRS Philippines focuses its work on Homes and Communities, peacebuilding, emergency response, disaster risk reduction and climate change. The Philippines country program has more than 100 staff with a main office in Manila and sub-offices in Davao and Cotabato. CRS programs are implemented through a national network of partners, in close coordination with local, municipal and national government agencies. The Country Program also provides support to CRS’s work in Indonesia, Timor Leste, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and has drawn international recognition for the impact, timeliness, and innovation of its programs and approaches.

Job Summary

Risk and Compliance Senior Officer will conduct risk prevention and mitigation activities for the country program (CP) including ensuring sub-recipient compliance, adherence to CRS policies, local laws, and donor regulations to help ensure effective delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your knowledge and skills will help reduce risk to staff, to the effectiveness of our programming and to the people we serve through the application of the principles of stewardship, integrity, transparency, and accountability.

Job Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Compliance Team Leader and CP leadership on strengthening internal control systems and processes.
• Help identify risk issues and challenges and solutions to address them.
• Help implement and advise on the sub-recipient financial management policy (SRFMP). And responsible for ensuring assigned office/sub-offices compliance with certain Overseas Operations Division (OOD) and other agency policies (e.g., Agreements, ARS and Cataloguing Policies/Procedures, Protection Policy Rollout to Partners, Anti-trafficking in Persons Compliance for USG Awards and Non-US USG Audit Applicability of Subrecipient/s).
• Support the planning and performance of internal audits, control reviews and compliance assessments, conduct audit activities as applicable. Help analyze results and provide recommendations.
• Support the design and facilitation of training and institutional capacity strengthening plans for CRS staff and partners.
• Support external audits and the coordination of action plans to close out audit findings.
• Any other relevant duties and tasks assigned by the Supervisor.
• Conducts Compliance Reviews through the following activities:

1. Reviews business processes and procedures of CP offices in compliance with the agency’s Standard Internal Control Questionnaire (ICQ).
2. Conduct surprise financial transaction review of CP offices for specified periods through sampling of transactions.
3. Visits warehouses to inspect the condition of commodities and to evaluate internal controls systems, if necessary.
4. Maintains centralized compliance-related files in a well-organized fashion.
5. Prepares compliance review reports that describe findings and recommendations that are relevant and clearly articulated.

Fraud Allegation Management

• As assigned, carry out and lead reviews/investigations at CP and partners level and effectively report the outcomes to supervisor, CP management & EtU as applicable.
• Ensure key steps throughout the investigative process, including planning, fieldwork, reporting is coordinated effectively with input and guidance from the Region and EtU. Reviews and investigations are performed in line with CRS Fraud Allegation Management Procedures, CRS Policies, local laws, and donor regulations.
• Develop or contribute to the development of investigation plans/Scope of Work (SoW) for investigations. Undertake investigations & reviews into allegations of violations of policies, procedures, standards, guidelines, and applicable rules and regulations.
• Effectively document and write reports on findings and recommendations to improve processes and internal controls. Propose strategies to strengthen country office control systems and procedures.

Scope

The basis of Country Program’s annual work plan for compliance are the following priority areas:

• Partner’s financial management
• Main office and sub-office financial controls
• Financial transaction processing
• Supply Chain Management – including verification to MEAL (program results reporting)
• Other Key Areas of Operations – Property and Vehicle Management, Human Resources, Information Technology and Admin

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy, Business Administration or other relevant Bachelor’s strongly preferred. Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Accountant, and/or Certified Internal Auditor certifications desired.
• Minimum of 5 years work experience, ideally with an international organization, with progressive responsibility in operations and/or programming. At least 2 of these years entailing audit, investigations, compliance or risk management experience.
• Knowledge of audit standards and compliance regulations and familiarity with international standards for internal control and risk and compliance management (e.g., COSO, ISO, COBIT).
• Familiarity with accounting systems and proven ability to use office productivity software. Proficient in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio) and information management systems.

Required Languages: Proficient in English and Filipino language, both oral and written

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 45 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Good relationship management skills, has a positive attitude and strong interpersonal skills
• Good analytical, organizational, and systems thinking skills
• Ability to make sound judgment
• Ethical conduct in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented
• Experience carrying out audits/investigations, internal control and financial systems review.
• Skilled in collecting, synthesizing and analyzing data.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Able to make oral presentations and write clear reports.
• Ability to multi-task and work well under pressure.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

Supervisory Responsibilities: none

Key Working Relationships

Internal: Risk and Compliance Team Leader, Country Program Finance and Operations (Supply Chain, Human Resources, IT and Admin); Asia Region Risk and Compliance, Deputy RFO , RFO, DRD MQ, HQ Risk and Compliance

External: Partners and vendors as needed