Finance Coordinator South Sudan Juba at Norwegian Refugee Council

Role

All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organization’s values. To be dedicated, innovative, inclusive and accountable are attitudes and believes that shall guide our actions and relationships. NRC has a commitment to safety and wellbeing and together we build a positive working culture to feel valued, empowered, supported, safe and have a sense of belonging. NRC does not tolerate employees exploiting or abusing people and has zero tolerance to inaction.

Background

NRC works to protect the rights of displaced and vulnerable people during crisis and meet immediate humanitarian needs, prevent further displacement, and contribute to durable solutions. Through our mobile emergency response capacity, we provide lifesaving multisectoral assistance to crisis affected populations in hard-to-reach areas across South Sudan. In areas throughout the country where we have established operations, we ensure that displacement affected people are safe, can exercise their rights, access quality services and protection and secure durable solutions. To that end, we contribute to safe and stable environment needed to allow for return and reintegration or integration of displaced communities. We do this through advocacy, coordination, and collaboration, as well as integrated and multi-sectoral long-term interventions.

In South Sudan, NRC established in 2004 and provides humanitarian aid and supports durable solutions with integrated and multi-sectoral long-term interventions in six core competencies: Information Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA), Protection from Violence, Education, WASH and Shelter. In line with NRC global direction, our WASH and Shelter programmes are transitioning from mainly humanitarian response to support communities with more sustainable water systems and sanitation facilities in response to securing lasting solutions. Also, NRC has the ambition to grow its urban programming to facilitate durable solutions for the swelling urban population in South Sudan.

Roles and responsibilities

The position of a Consortium Finance Coordinator is to implement a strategic and operational ensuring the functioning of the consortium partners finance, human resources, logistics/procurement administration and ICT run efficiently across all programme implementation teams and support departments with quality and compliance with donor and consortium guidelines and procedures in service delivery.

Generic Responsibilities

1. Support implementation of NRC’s systems and procedures, including NRC Consortium Guide, donor and South Sudan requirements across the implementing agencies
2. Ensure an effective periodical review of records of implementing agencies for adherence to grant terms and conditions
3. Consolidate financial reports, fund requests and budget of member agencies in a timely and up to a high standard as the grant calendar dictates.
4. Ensure the maintenance of high standard filing of Consortium records for all financial and accounting deliverables to ensure ease of access during internal/external audit
5. Play active role in organizing consortium staff coordination meetings and trainings
6. Support NRC and Consortium staff in financial compliance matters
7. Monitor budget utilization of the consortium members pertaining to the relevant grant and take appropriate action on any significant variances.

Specific responsibilities:

Manage Consortium Compliance System:

• Ensure the proper systems (process and tools) for monitoring of compliance are set up during the planning, implementation and close-out stage of the grant.

• Managing the financial aspects of NRC’s role as Lead Agency in the consortium delivering multi-year, multi-partner programmes, in line with donor requirements and Consortium’s agreed policies & procedures.

  Ensure that financial, logistics and HR management systems & records from all the implementing agencies are adequate in order to identify and protect the assets & interest of the Consortium.

• Undertake regular compliance visits in order to assess the compliance of financial, HR and logistics systems of consortium members & put forward recommendation for improvements where appropriate
• Participate in the review, monitoring and capacity building of partners
• Ensure that local partner finance reports are thoroughly reviewed in coordination with the level of risk assessed in the respective agency.
• Review and monitor budget of consortium members to support financial stability, on-going programme viability, efficient cost structures and value for money that meet the requirements of external funding agencies.
• Check the maintenance of a good filing system for all financial and accounting deliverables to ensure ease of access during internal/external audit.

• Check there are adequate back-up systems to protect the integrity of data essential for compliance within each member agency.

• On behalf of the lead agency or jointly in the finance and systems working groups, organise finance meetings and workshops for consortium members aimed at standardising compliance and financial procedures and addressing outstanding issues. Reporting back to line manager on the outcomes of such meetings.

• Undertake financial training to finance and non-finance managers, to assist them in enforcing financial controls & making decisions based on financial reports.

  Financial Control/Risk Management

• Contribute to the development of risk register on financial, logistics and HR points, 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
• Maintain an effective & efficient system of internal controls which comply with consortium financial guidelines to minimize the risk of fraud or misappropriation.
• Ensure that all financial records & accounts are compiled timely, accurately and in line with international accounting standards & donor regulations

• Ensure that sub-grant related processes and procedures are standardized and consistently implemented throughout the program, including pre-award compliance checks, agreements, disbursements, reporting and partner capacity-building.

• Work with consortium members to ensure that relevant donor procurement rules are followed for all grants with periodical reviews of the procurement plans
• Provide support to consortium members to ensure consistent compliance with the terms of sub-grant agreements, including financial management and compliance with donor regulations, as needed.
• Conduct visits to member agencies’ offices including field programme offices where necessary for periodical review of records and have a thorough understanding of activities in the field and recommend corrective actions for improvement.
• Organise external and donor audits and annual expenditure verification exercises with external auditors and facilitate audits with Consortium members
• Keep track of lessons learnt and share with consortium members during the course of implementation.

• Convene and chair the technical working groups for support systems and finance. Reporting back to the coordination unit on findings, issues raised

  Financial Reporting

• Review and consolidate financial reports, fund requests and budget of member agencies in a timely and up to a high standard as the grant calendar dictates.
• Monitor budget utilization of the consortium unit and consortium members and take appropriate action on any significant variances.
• Manage budget and maintain accounting records for the NRC component of the project.
• Provide financial analysis where necessary especially on maximizing available funds and value for money

• Monitor fixed assets register of all assets acquired with consortium funding and ensure timely reporting, proper tracking and disposal procedure as per the grant agreement.

  Other

• Support the lead agency’s finance team in month end closure routines in close coordination with NRC’s finance manager Assist the lead agency in the coordination and management of internal and external audit procedures.
• Undertake verification of budget and disbursement requests for the NRC component of the grant as may be agreed with the NRC Finance Manager.
• Other duties as may be assigned by the line manager. Scale and scope of the position
• “Information of the scope of the position to be inserted in the table below. This is applicable only for roles graded as 8 and above e.g. a function manager/specialist at CO level or when allocated a project budget)

• Financial responsibility:	Insert if allocated budget held and managed
  Resources responsibility:	EU, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs, civil society, governmental bodies NRC Consortium Guide, Global and South Sudan Finance Handbook

• Critical interfaces
• All implementing agencies: Make sure that all the departments’ heads are aware of financial procedure and abiding with process
• Program staff: Provide timely and technical support to all the program and support
• Generic professional competencies
• These are skills, knowledge and experience that are important for effective performance.
• Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting/Business or Finance. Professional accounting qualifications. E.g. ACCA, CIMA, CPA or CA would be an asset
• Experience of working on projects funded by major international donors such as EU, USAID, DFID and the UN
• At least 2 years of post-qualification experience in a finance/accounting role, in the International NGO sector. Auditing experience with NGOs would be an advantage
• Computer literacy, particularly in Microsoft Office programmes such as Word and Excel as well accounting packages & other database competencies.
• Proven experience of conducting training for finance and non-finance managers
• Must be able to prioritize and have excellent time management, multitasking, documentation and reporting skills.
• Good problem-solving skills, diplomatic and self-directed.
• Proven communication, interpersonal, representation, negotiation and leadership skills
• Good command of English
• Context related skills, knowledge and experience
• Previous experience of working in or managing finance in a consortium model of working.
• Experience in project start up and close out.
• Experience in Audit and/or financial assessment.
• Knowledge of South Sudan context.
• Ability to collaborate with local authorities where support function is required (e.g Assets disposal) .
• Solid knowledge of Finance, HR, ICT and Logistics routines in a humanitarian context.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to process large amounts of liquid data.
• Good command of English.

Behavioural competencies

• Handling insecure environment
• Planning and delivering results
• Working with people
• Managing resources to optimize results
• Managing performance and development