Grants Officer, Ethiopia Sustainable Peace Activity 71 views

Pact is a recognized global leader in international development. Our staff have a range of expertise in areas including public health, capacity development, governance and civil society, natural resource management, poverty, fragile states, monitoring and evaluation, small-scale and artisanal mining, microfinance and more. This expertise is combined in Pact’s unique integrated approach, which focuses on systemic changes needed to improve people’s lives.

Position Purpose

The Grants Officer is responsible for assisting the Grants & Contracts Director in the day-to-day process of grants under contract management from the inception to the close-out process of the contract and grant making process under Sustainable Peace. The Grants Officer supports the Grants & Contracts Team (the G&C Director and Senior Grants Officer) in planning, organizing, coordinating, monitoring, and reporting of grants under contract (GUCs).   She/he also provides capacity building and technical support to GUC recipients. Contributes to the design of RFAs/APSs, reviews GUC applications, supports the preparation, negotiation, and monitoring of GUC agreements. Ensures GUC compliance with USAID rules and regulations and Pact policies.

Key Responsibilities

The specific duties to be carried out by the successful candidate are listed below:

Pre-Award

• Work with Pact project managers and officers to select grantees for the award under Sustainable Peace. This will include the conduct of pre-award assessments to determine the responsibility of prospective GUC recipients using an appropriate tool.
• Communicate the findings of the pre-award assessment to the partner organization officially taking into account the comments of the G&C Director regarding the outcome of the assessment. This task is accompanied by an official request to the grantee to come up with a generation of an ‘Improvement Plan Matrix”. The grants officer will, then, monitor progressively throughout the life of the GUC to make sure that the subcontractor and grantee has addressed the gaps identified during the pre-award survey.
• In addition to pre-award assessments, the Grants Officer will be involved highly in the process during the pre-award part of the grant making process.

Post-Award

• Provide technical assistance to staff and GUC recipients administrative policies and procedures for contract and grants management.
• Review cash advance request against original budget amount of the Sub grantees and process the request accordingly. This task includes verification of activities and budget in accordance with original agreement.
• Verify obligated funding available and data reported in the GUC matrix for each GUC recipient. This task includes a monthly reconciliation of figures captured in finance and grant units and accounting of the differences accordingly.
• Update the program team on regular basis, monthly, regarding the status of the financial performance of GUC recipients, advising program teams to consider new obligations or deobligations.
• Maintain individual Trackers for each individual contract/grant to verify spending against the approved budget. She/he should check the financial performance versus the programmatic performance as captured by the regular reports of the partner organizations.
• Assist the G&C Director in his/her endeavor to work with G&C/HQ to obtain prior approvals and waivers from partners required for administration of specific contract and grants.
• Plan and monitor GUC recipients to confirm that they are in compliance with special award conditions.
• Routinely monitor the maintenance and control of the archive of contracts and grants, in line with direction by the G&C Director.
• Prepare modification of agreements whenever there is additional obligation/de-obligation, time extension, change in program description or milestones, etc. The Grants officer should make sure that all the necessary documentations are in place, including the memorandum of negotiation, before preparing modification and submitting to approvals.
• Actively gets involved in the close out process of grants under contract. The Grants Officer supports the close out process for each GUC recipient. The process includes, at a minimum, the reconciliation of financial information captured in finance and grant unit, the collection of final narrative and financial reports, the collection of property disposition plan and the instruction there of, etc.

Grants Procurement Under Contract

• Support the preparation of RFAs and APSs and other instruments for competitive selection processes.
• Prepare and/or review documentation (selection, choice of instrument) of grants under contracts.
• Verify completion and payment of final invoice. In this regard, the Grants Officer should work with the finance unit to ensure that expenses in relation to the procurements are properly coded to the right Subaward.

Training and other Technical Assistant

• Assist the G&C Director and Senior Grants Officer in contributing to the development and delivery of training for GUCs management.
• Co-facilitate GUCs management training.

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.

Supervisor Title: Grant and Contract Director

New or Replacement: New Position

• Master’s degree and 6+ years relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Other local education and experience: Minimum of 2 years of relevant work experience in the area of grants and/or contract management.

Additional Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree/MA in a related business field (Accounting, Business Administration or Economics)
• Knowledge of USG and other donor regulations applicable to contract and grants administration.
• Good at performing financial reviews and other forms of quantitative analyses.
• Effective written and oral communications skills are essential to building relationships with donors and partner organizations.
• Ability to exercise sound business judgment to wisely prioritize and successfully perform multiple and complex tasks.
• Highly organized and able to develop and streamline systems for efficient conduct of day-to-day tasks.
• Proficiency in word processing, spreadsheets and database skills.
• Fluency in written and spoken English language.

Unique/Specialized Job Requirements

• Ability and willingness to frequent field visits.