Country Office Senior Finance Manager – Hargeisa, Somaliland

                                           VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Country Office Senior Finance Manager

Position title:	Country Office Senior Finance Manager
Duty station:	Hargeisa, other locations possible
Reporting to:	Deputy Country Director – Operations
Duration:	1 Year Contract with possible extension
Starting date:	ASAP

JOB SUMMARY

The Finance department’s purpose is to ensure that CARE Somalia maintains gains in finance operational efficiency and uses financial data to manage finance performance for the Country Office (CO).

The department’s main targets are: that the CO budgets for proposal development, program development and the CO annual planning are accurate; that the CO operates in line with finance best practices, with CARE International, country and donor policies, processes, guidelines, rules and regulations while the department services efficiently and effectively support program implementation; that periodic analytical financial reports are timely provided and the department advices the management on the financial position, performance and financial risks as input for effective resource management decision making.

The unit covers the following functions: Accounting and Budget, Grants and Contracts Management.

1. Improve Financial Management and Reporting for the country office, ensure the CO maintain gains in finance operational efficiency, and uses financial data to manage finance performance for the CO. Monthly Reports on FAR/BGC review Log, Master Budget and COMFORT tools are used for SMT management action.
2. Strengthen Award and sub award capacity, compliance, and reporting; ensure COs continuously improve on compliance requirements from donors. Donor Reporting, Management of budgets will be within CO spend and there will be no budget overruns.
3. Champion and support global initiatives Global AP, Time entry and ROAR. Data management and accuracy will be achieved at 95% rate and PAR adoption through PeopleSoft.

The CO Senior Finance Manager responsibilities will include to provide effective and efficient financial planning and management of resources for proper recording, documentation, control, monitoring and reporting of financial operations in compliance with CARE and donor rules & regulations. S/He provides oversight of the day-to-day financial operations at the CO level and is accountable for organizing and providing quality financial services to CO programs, projects and units’ staff.

Through supervision of the Awards and Sub-Awards team, ensure that CARE’s investments achieve the desired impact and that finances are managed in accordance with CARE policies and procedures, Donor rules and regulations and the Somalian laws requirements. Through supervision of the Accounts Payable staff, ensure good practice in treasury and cash management.

S/He works closely with the Shared Services Center (SSC) and Regional Management Unit (RMU) and CO senior management teams to ensure appropriate financial support and resources are available. S/He ensures a partnership is developed and nurtured between Finance, Program, and other program support units in the CO.

Objective management – Leadership and Functional Management

Finance meets its operational objectives and annual targets in supporting CARE cost effective performance in an efficient manner in time

• Lead the development of department objectives, target, and systems.
• Ensure department plan(s) are ready or amended in time for timely implementation.
• Ensure achievement of the objectives and targets:
• Agree on planning.
• Agree on responsibilities, processes, service levels and results.
• Agree on guideline interpretation.
• Give and receive timely feedback on actual delivery.
• Ensure timely delivery of services at agreed quality levels for all program / project phases.
• Ensure the department operates in a cost- effective and efficient manner
• Contribute to the development, implementation and achievement of CARE’s strategies and approaches (e.g. Program, Partnerships, EPP etc)

The position is a member of CO Management team (COMT)

4. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

R1: Budgeting and Budgetary Control (25%)

• CARE meets the (CO /program/project fund management) budget agreements; the program funds are timely available to ensure timely program implementation
• Oversee the development and implementation of CARE Somalia country-wide budgets and ensure the budgets are reviewed by the CD before submission to RMU
• Proposal Budgeting- Review proposal budgets to ensure adequate SPC coverage on all new proposal and provide final sign off on all new proposal budgets before sharing with CD for final approval.
• On quarterly basis update the CO master budget highlighting SPC and funding gaps and ensure review by COMT before submission to RMU 25 days after the end of quarter.
• Establish the processes by which the country budget will be developed, adhering to CARE USA annual budgeting timeline, guidelines, and policies, and holding staff country-wide accountable for doing their part.
• Ensure that accountable managers are equipped and empowered to carry out budgeting activities according to best practice
• Ensure that mechanisms for monitoring, control and review of budget implementation are in place, including quarterly “health check” reviews of CO cost recovery efforts, continuously analyzing the extent to which the CO is recovering its costs (Shared Program Costs, Sub & Field Office Costs);
• Forecast to confirm the availability of financial resources and maintain CO Master Budget updated in order to anticipate shortages and propose timely corrective actions to COMT (e.g., downsizing, restructuring, etc);
• Carry out strategic level risk assessment and analyze trends to identify and manage issues that might impact on the financial health or viability of CARE Somalia,
• Develop systems, take actions, and behave in a way which will generate and maintain relationships of mutual trust with donors; liaising with donors to ensure that they are provided with all required reports and information

R2: Accounting and Reporting (30%)

• CARE’s financial records are complete and accurate. CARE meets its financial obligations and financial accountability requirements in an efficient and effective manner to ensure timely program implementation
• Ensure systems working properly for country office and systems effectively used by country office staff
• Coordinate Year end closure processes for the CO, including ensuring coordination of key and critical year end tasks with all departments in the CO (Programs and Program support)

Through supervision of the Accounts Payable staff:

• Ensure good practice in treasury and cash management
• Promote the use of wire and digital transfers, timely and efficient process for making payments
• Always maintain appropriate levels of cash in country to keep operations going; This includes supporting project managers and heads of departments with accurate and timely cash forecasts; Always maintaining a healthy level of cash in country to maintain operations on-going.
• Payroll and all staff benefits’ accruals allocation is done accurately, and schedules reconciled to the General Ledger before month end close
• CARE Somalia Accounts payable is efficiently and effectively done
• Months end close process is done in sequence and accurately for CARE Somalia books to be closed on 15th of the month
• Perform quality reviews and analysis of the Trial balance as well as any financial performance reports and provides feedback to CO management to improve financial management.
• CARE meets the reporting quality requirements in time
• Accountable for the preparation and submission of complete, reliable, and timely donor financial reports to Project Managers, donors, local entities and other partners as relevant ensure that reporting deadline are met

Through supervision of responsible staff

• Ensure that all grants; reports are made on time and accurately and that Shared Program costs are allocated as per CARE USA Policy
• Ensure the timely contribution to overall reports (i.e., BVA, COMFORT, donor’s financial report, FAR; BGC Log)

R3: Award and Sub-Award Management (20%)

• Awards and Pre-Awards are managed according to CARE International Policies and standards
• Through supervision of the Grants and Contracts Team
• Ensure that CARE’s investments achieve the desired impact and that finances are managed in accordance with CARE, SOMALIA and Donor requirements, rules, and regulations.
• Provide analysis to SMT and PMT on efficiency and value for money achieved with our financial resources.
• Ensure that all grants; reports are made on time and accurately and that Shared Program costs are allocated as per CARE USA Policy
• Ensure effective end-to-end Awards & Sub-Awards management is carried out, ensuring full compliance with Donor requirements, CARE International policies & the Somalian laws,
• Ensure that all budgets and contracts are comprehensive and accurate and comply with Donor agreements and requirements, CARE International policies and the laws of the Country. Ensure budgets are prepared in line with CARE International Shared Program Costs policy and cover their fair share of SPC.
• Proactively review Contract Aging reports in order to note breaches of contract, forthcoming expiries and any other problems or concerns
• Provide CARE Accountable Managers with quality financial information and advice in order to aid their decision making concerning the grants and sub grants they manage
• Ensure that comprehensive Due Diligence and organizational capacity assessments of partners’, including their financial capacity, have been carried out for all of CARE Somalia’s potential partners according to policy.
• Ensure that CARE’s policies and procedures for Sub Awards management are carried out, liaising with accountable managers to trouble-shoot any problems. Specifically, ensure the CO Decision Making Committee (DMC) that makes key decisions on sub-award

R4: Facilitates audits and ensures CO is compliant with CARE and donor policies and proceduces, ensure disallowed costs are minimised (15%) 

• Audit Management: CARE meets the internal and external Audit completion timelines and receives unqualified audit opinions
• Ensure statutory audits, internal and donor audits are conducted in a timely and professional manner, cooperating with external audits, and leading the implementation of recommendations
• Working with Awards and Sub awards team to review donor agreements to highlight audit dates well in advance and plan for such audits.
• Negotiate with the external auditors and agree on the TOR, audit fees, and draft the contracts for management approval,
• Liaise with Finance and project managers to receive relevant information to the auditors on demand, that include budgets, financial and narrative report,
• Review the audit reports (where applicable) to ensure that they are in line with ToR and make follow-up on audit recommendations in the management letters and prepare responses to audit queries for the Country Director’s approval

R5: Staff performance and development management (5%)

• The Finance staff has the required capabilities to deliver planned services and achieve targets in time and budget. The direct and functional supervisees’ development is supported, and performance is measured in a transparent manner
• Ensure proper staffing to enable the Finance Team to manage CARE Somalia’s resources efficiently.
• Develop KPI’s for staff under his supervision, communicate clearly on the roles and expectation and ensure each staff understands the requirements of work and expected outcomes and develop awareness of the best practice in the accounting field and INGOs
• Manage the Team towards high standards of performance through clear roles and responsibilities, on-going feedback, and appraisals. Pro-actively address performance issues through timely constructive feedback and coaching.
• Ensure all department staff is following the Human Resource Performance Management procedures.
• Ensures staff develop/have the technical and job specific and value-based competencies to deliver the agreed services at agreed standards, the Sr. Finance Manager actively support staff and functional supervisees’ development.
• Notice talent and maximize the use of available talent through on-going staff development, succession planning, career management and utilization of a leadership style that will drive employee engagement and motivation
• Ensure proposals for promotions, transfers, hires, probation, recruitment, terminations, and disciplinary actions are timely shared with the CARE HR department in line with the CARE HR manual.

R6: Risk management and compliance (5%)

• CARE and partners limit liability risks effectively and efficiently in compliance with CARE guidelines and core values
• Comply with Country Office internal controls, policies, processes, procedures, and systems and ensure compliance with the same by implementing partners
• Ensure all donor contracts and Financial agreements/MoU are legally sound
• Ensure adherence to the Compliance feedback mechanism guidelines.
• Identify and mitigate the risk of loss and liability on a timely basis.
• Ensure that all required internal controls are in place, followed and continuously identify ways of tightening them in the light of the high risks for fraud
• Monitor the relevance of existing policies, procedures, and systems in order to identify areas for improvement, striving for greater efficiency; take corrective actions as appropriate, referring to Accountable Managers, COMT, RMU or CMPs as may be deemed necessary,
• Ensure all Country Office financial policies, processes, procedures, guidelines, statutory requirements (e.g., in tax laws, labour laws, etc), and systems are up to date and are in compliance with donor guideline, CARE International Confederation policies and procedures, Somalia laws, rules, regulations as well as aligned with best practices and generally accepted standards; changes are timey proposed for approval by the Executive Team and ensuring they are strictly adhered to,
• Carry out strategic level risk assessment and analyse trends to identify and manage issues that might impact on the financial health or viability of CARE Somalia

Capacity Building to CARE staff and Partners

• Build the capacity of CARE Staff and Implementing Partners to manage financial resources according to good accounting practice and in compliance with Donor & CARE International standards
• Support the development and implementation of strategies for bridging the partner capacity gaps that are identified during partner assessments
• Liaise with Department Heads and the HR office to understand financial capacity building needs of CARE staff, ensuring the development and roll-out of any required professional development initiatives.
• Ensure that CARE Staff and Partners fully understand what is expected of them and are equipped to manage awards and sub-awards according to best practice, policies, and procedures.
• Deploy the team of Awards & Sub-Awards Staff to the project teams; ensuring that they provide all necessary support, and carry out monitoring visits according to the project plan

5. REQUIREMENTS:
6. Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance or Business Management or equivalent
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or ACCA

1. Experience

• Minimum 7 years’ experience working in the developmental and / or humanitarian sector specific technical experience in budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, grants/contracts management and business management
• Minimum 5 years’ experience as a Senior Finance Manager or equivalent experience
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in working with multi donors with relevant donor policies, rules, and regulations
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in leading a team with excellent leadership, coaching and negotiation skills
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in working with financial software applications e.g., Enterprise Resource Planning systems (Procurement, Financial, HR module)
  1. Competencies

• Action oriented
• Builds effective teams
• Communicates effectively
• Drives results
• Optimizes work processess
• Cultivates innovation
• Collaborates
• Drives vision and purpose

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates who meet the criteria above are encouraged to send their application letters and detailed CV in a one PDF document to SOM.Recruitment@care.org by referring to the job title “( Country Office Senior Finance Manager)” as the subject line of the email, latest on Thursday, 23 December 2021

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

 For more information about CARE and its programs, visit www.care.org

CARE is an equal opportunity employer promoting gender, equity and diversity. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. CARE is Zero Tolerant organization for child abuse and sexual exploitation and abuses.

 

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