Deputy Head of Finance and Administration 751 views

Doing the right thing. We are active in Switzerland and 20 countries on four continents. Join us with a commitment to help us bring about a more caring society, here in Ethiopia.

CARITAS Switzerland (CACH) has been working in Ethiopia for more than 40 years. Currently CACH cooperates with four partners in Ethiopia. CACH has successfully been registered as an International Non-Government Organization in Ethiopia and has therefore become operational at project implementation level. CACH’s main working fields are: Climate, Income, Migration as well as Humanitarian Aid Responses. CACH’s current working areas are in Oromia, SNNPR, Amhara and Tigray. CACH supports and implements currently about fifteen projects in these regions.

Summary of Duties

The job holder is deputizing the HoFA during her/his absence. In this role she/he has the co-overall responsibility for all finance-administrative matters at the Country Office (CO) level. She/he maintains the accountability of the Ethiopia office towards government and donors as well as the Caritas Head Office. She/he will ensure that CACH partner organisations maintain and develop their capacities in financial administration and ensures project reporting of all relevant finance and administrational documents in a timely manner and in an adequate quality. She/he will support in procurement of materials and goods (as per defined processes) for the CACH offices and projects and assures that all administrative and financial procedures are in line with internal and external requirements.

In her/his day-to-day tasks she/he has the overall responsibility for ensuring internal and external reports are made in a timely manner, prepare budgets and follow up proper utilization of budgets as approved. Ensuring timely recording transactions into the system and checking those recorded by the finance managers/officers/assistants. She/he is expected to ensure timely reporting of financial reports of CACH partner organisations and to ensure that all relevant supporting document etc. match with the reports. She/he will be the key person for budget preparations (new projects) and the focal person for any type of budget amendments (internal/donor/government). She/he will be the immediate supervisor of some finance managers (FM).

Expected Key Results

Deputizing the HoFA during her/his absence;

• Preparations of budget with other staff members for new projects (ensuring government and donor compliance); assuring that project budgets are prepared and calculated in a manner that ongoing and new projects have a full costs coverage of all relevant Country Office (CO) staff and office(s) running costs;
• Follow up project office cost settlements and assuring timely delivery of documents from field offices (FO) / Partners to the CO;
• Follow up that the country-based inventory list is kept updated in line with internal requirements and satisfying Government of Ethiopia (GoE) regulations;
• Assuring that all relevant taxes and other government obligations are settled in time;
• Engage and assist in the preparation of government and donor reports and present for approval to the HoFA and and/or CD the CACH Head Office (HO).
• Prepare and draft donor agreements for approval
• Areas of Responsibility (not exhaustive)
• Assuring smooth and professional finance controlling of the partner organizations and sub-contractors together with the assigned FM and project manager and/or coordinator (PM/PC);
• Supervision of good financial management for the country office and the field offices in close collaboration with the FM and PMs/PCs and assuring that internal and donor reporting (as per the process tables and the reporting table) is done in a timely and qualitative manner;
• Assuring that the finance unit at the CO level has an efficient and workable structure with well-educated staff and that the division of tasks related to the finance unit is done in an efficient way and a realistic level of responsibilities is assigned to the finance unit staff in the scope of their capacities and individual job descriptions;
• Assuring that finance administrative matters of the country programme are in line with the government legislation and that a smooth communication and timely reporting to government authorities is done.
• Review budgets and expenditure and close liaise with project managers;
• Analyse the budget trends and make recommendations for cost control and reduction for various grants;
• Maintain records of all payments and receivables and prepare monthly records for all project finance-administrative related activities;
• Ensure timely cash forecast is submitted to CO;
• Directly involve in grant writing by coordinating with grant writers or coordinators;
• Prepares expenditure analysis for overall program, and field offices;
• Reviews and approves field office fund request in line with her/his scope of responsibilities;
• Monitors employee time sheet and payroll payment procedures;
• In consultation with appropriate program staff, prepares and reviews project budgets and realignments;
• Facilitate donor audit/assessment process through HO (Head Office) responsible person or as directed by HoFA;
• Support and oversee audit of projects and the country office.
• Support of procurement, storage and distribution of supplies according to the CACH and donor regulations for effective system so that purchase of goods and services are processed swiftly;
• Provide necessary support for tenders and project managers, ensure that tenders meet CACH, donor and government requirements;
• Ensure that CO and relevant project staff request and settle advances on time and according to the national staff regulation.
• Pro-actively inform about donor and government rules and regulations and share the information to all concerned staff and partners
• Regular direct reporting to the HoFA, HO and (Deputy) CD and/or Regional Director (RD)
• Participation and active contribution in the various team-meetings;
• Assume direct communication with the concerned staff at the HO in the scope of her/his assignments;
• Independent preparation of government/donor/internal reporting in close cooperation with the HoFA and other concerned staff (CD / RD / Head of Programme / Project Managers / Advisors etc.)

What we offer and Application process

We offer a responsible position with a wide range of flexibility and a competitive salary package. Duty station will be Addis Ababa CACH Country Office. The candidate must be ready to undertake occasional travels to project sites, and to local partner organizations if requested.

Qualification

• The ideal candidate represents the majority of the below mentioned areas:
• MA in Accounting and Finance from a recognized university or college;
• Minimum of  7+ years of work experience in senior financial managerial positions;
• Proven ability of working with accounting software, computer literate and effective ability in Excel and Word.
• Experience in Budget administration and Reporting;
• Proven experience as team leader;
• Ability to lead by example and demonstrate a strong sense of integrity, ethics and dependency;
• Good interpersonal communication and leadership skills, ability to communicate and manage staff at different levels;
• Professional written and oral communication skills in Amharic and English;
• Strategic thinking, planning and creative problem-solving skills;
• Must be able and willing to travel within and outside the working area as needed.