Senior Partnership Finance Officer- for National Position Only At Norwegian People’s Aid

Function prerequisite:

The Senior Partnership Finance Officer (SPFO) is responsible for the oversight of the financial, management, administrative and financial capacity building of the partners in NES to ensure optimal utilization of the resources allocated to them. The SPFO will work as part of finance department and in close collaboration with programme, HR, logistics and administration team in providing support in reviewing partners budget and proposal at the proposal stage, taking lead in partners assessment, financial monitoring and reporting, compliance and quality assurance and documentation of all partners financial performances to assure compliance with NPA and donor standards and audit readiness.

The SPFO time of up to 20% level of efforts be responsible for managing the petty cash box, undertaking daily, accurate and timely posting of all approved transactions while carrying out sensibility and control checking on all transaction’s vouchers for accuracy of codes, arithmetic accuracy, completness of supporting documentations for compliance purposes before and after posting them to Agresso. The position will routinely on instructions support the month and year end closing procedures including preparing assigned monthly Total Balance Reconciliations accounts. The position is equally responsible for taking initiatives to ensure that funds are used in the best possible way by enforcing adherence and compliance with NPA global and country program control measures and procedures by staff in the course of undertaking their duties.

Responsibilities:

Partnership Development and Management

· In close collaboration with program department participate in identification of partners’ organizations that have the capacity and/or the ability to increase programme work and impact and support proposal budget development.

· Undertaking partners capacity assessment in order to identify capacity gaps and areas of support that the partners will require for effective implementation of the programme.

· Participate in management, BVAs meetings with the program, finance, HR, logistics and other staff in order to ensure coordinated and managed responses to the partners issues.

· Provide general and hands-on training and mentorship support NPA and partners staffs on basic financial management to address identified capacity needs and gaps.

· Monitor and follow up the implementation of the agreed work plan and budget to identify deviations and propose/take the necessary actions for those deviations.

· Monitor and provide technical support to partners and NPA in ensuring compliance NPA own policies as well as donor funding and reporting requirements.

· If delegated by senior colleagues/management participate in investigations as assigned to resolve contractual issues arising from projects implementation and make recommendations to Finance team.

· Ensure proactive communication with partners about contractual, financial and other reporting and communicate all challenges to the Finance and Programme teams.

· Undertake routine support visits to the partners to discuss financial and operational issues/progress and identify ways in which NPA can provide the needed support.

Financial Management and Reporting

· Reviewing all contracts and agreements to be or entered with the partners including modifications to ensure compliance with all NPA requirements for contracting.

· Preparation of partners annual cash transfers forecast to facilitate the overall office cashflows requirements forecasting and management.

· Check and verify cash transfer requests from partners for completeness and compliance with policies, procedures, and budgetary provisions before the transfers’ approvals.

· Verification of partners’ financial reports and support documents to ensure that expenses meet the standards NPA costs principles and are in compliance with donor’s rules and regulations.

· Liquidation of partners accounts and activities based on the submitted financial reports and ensuring that the consolidated partners financial reports is updated for ease of final auditing.

· Prepare partners monthly and routine financial and budget monitoring reports and analysis for budget holders in order to facilitate follow up and budget revisions and management decision.

· Preparation of the project close out reports indicating follow up actions on closed projects and manage the transfers of project deliverables such as documents, files, equipment.

· Communicate the review findings and ensure timely follow-up of the management letters – reviews must be based on level of risk and sampling or review of full documentation.

· Reconciling the Total Balance Reconciliation (TBR) account 2407 and any as may be assigned on monthly basis and ensure all open items/transactions are promptly resolved.

· Support partners external audit exercise and follow up to ensure that the auditors’ recommendations are followed up and implemented.

Partner Budget Management and Planning

· Review all partners plans and budget modifications and ensure that clear action points for follow-up are documented and communicated for tracking and audit trail purposes.

· On quarterly basis, review all partners budgets to ensure that they are in line with the original budget and that spending are within the NPA and donors’ budgets guidelines.

· Support partners in decisions regarding budget allocations and utilizations and alerting management to any mismanagement which arise during programme implementation.

· Provide guidance notes to current and potential partners on use of appropriate templates, overall budget drafting and submission as part of calls for proposals.

Partners and Staff Capacity Building

· Conduct and or ensure that partners financial assessments (PFAT and ODDAT) is conducted for all new and existing partners on annual basis.

· Support in developing risk management action plan and suggest corrective actions to address/mitigate risks identified during the PFAT process.

· Working in close collaboration with all departments, design, update and deliver financial management/compliance training for partners’ staff based on needs and capacity gaps.

· Conduct finance and general compliance monitoring visits to partners and prepare monitoring report and action and share with partners in timely manner for each visit.

· Take the lead to making sure that the partners are fully aware of NPA and donor regulations, all financial reporting requirements on documentation, reporting templates and deadlines.

Finance, Accounting, Book Keeping and Internal Controls – 20%

· Efficient and careful posting of approved transactions to Agresso to ensure that the ledgers are up to date to facilitate timely and accurate generation of financial and budget reports.

· Ensure that all processed transactions are checked and verified for compliance before being posted to Agresso meeting strict reporting deadlines.

· Check, verify transactions listings from Agresso against the payments and receipt vouchers to identify any posting errors and propose adjusting entries for corrections in addition to ensuring weekly reconciliations of all cash and bank account to Agresso ledger records.

· Track and follow up financial commitments, outstanding advances, and contract amounts by staffs and third parties and ensure that they are diligently executed when due.

Compliance and Information Systems Management

· Participate in conducting assigned and ad hoc investigations into identified or reported risks or fraud and corruption incidences and preparation of initial investigation report.

· Contribute to the development of risk register on financial and logistics and review it on an ongoing basis developing and improving appropriate controls to mitigate the risk as appropriate in compliance with donor policies and procedures.

· Responsible for the grants management system as the main tool for project funding information and contract management, updating and training on its usage to relevant staffs.

· Ensure that all financial policies and regulations relating to cash management, expenditure controls, procurement, accounting information, advances management for the management and control of funds are complied with by the partners at all time.

· Promptly inform the Finance team and Country Director of any known or suspected instances of fraud, corruption or any violation of NPA Code of Conduct or of ethical violations.

Authority/ Decisions: (Typical decisions the holder of the positions makes)

The job holder has discretionary decisions over the technical performance of the job tasks

Required qualifications:

Education:

A Bachelor Degree in Commerce, Accounting or Business Administration from a recognized university. Possession of a postgraduate qualification is an added advantage.

Experience:

Minimum of 4 years relevant working experience, preferably with International NGOs, with thorough understanding of GAAP and major donor standard requirements.

Other qualifications:

Good financial management skills with knowledge of computerized accounting packages and good understanding of major donors’ financial conditions and government budgets and tax policies.

Personal Competencies:

1. Self-motivated with demonstrated ability to work under minimal supervision, generate financial reports and meet set deadlines and with good integrity.
2. Team player with good interpersonal/communication, documentation, and facilitation skills and the ability to work under minimum supervision. Computer literacy and fluency in English are a MUST.
3. Ability to maintain professional development and competencies on financial issues.
4. Ability to adhere to NPA core values and code of conduct and Security Guidelines.
5. Willingness to perform other duties as requested by the supervisor from time to time

Additional Considerations:

· The SPFO is to abide by the policies and personal code of conduct set by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and represent the organisation in a loyal and responsible manner.

· All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks including vetting and due delegence