Finance and Grant Accountant

Location: Freetown, W, SL

Company: Plan International

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Plan International Sierra Leone is seeking to recruit and fill the position of Finance and Grant Accountant based in the Country Office, Freetown. This role will support Plan International Sierra Leone’s work by ensuring asset and fleet management is aligned with organizational standards and best practices in Finance.

DIMENSIONS OF ROLE

This role ensure overall financial accountability, compliance and reporting to donors and management on the GEC overall project implementation.  He/she will be responsible for the grants management and reporting processes, from budgeting, budget management including grant budget setup; financial management and reporting are conducted in a manner consistent with DFID and Plan International policies, procedures and regulations. Position holder will also support Country Office internal assurance team during grant audits.

Key Responsibilities

Budgeting and Control:

Providing relevant support and information for budget preparation (including advice on minimum cost recovery requirements,

Perform grant-related post-award functions, including budget and expense analysis in addition to routine audits during implementation and at close-out, as needed and identified in coordination with the Operations Manager

Support the mapping from the Plan SLE budget format to the donor format

Where necessary, support the Country Office finance team in annual budgeting process for Plan Sierra Leone.

Together with Project Managers and Grants Coordinators, map the donor budget against Plan Sierra Leone’s account codes

Train and provide ongoing technical assistance to partner office finance staff and program partners on best practices for financial management systems, grant administration and organizational policies in order to increase capacity. Dedicate 50% of time working with FAWE to ensure proper financial management is followed in the implementation of GEC-T Project.

Review budget revision from Program Managers for correct calculation and proper mapping to cost categories before submission to Operations Manager

Highlight and prepare documentation for any project modifications, including budget revisions, amendments or extensions which require donor consent and approval. Ensure such changes are made in close consultation with the relevant Project Managers, Country Office Grants staff, Partners Members and cleared by the Operations Manager in advance of any submission.

Keep track of project match funding aspects and notify the Operations Manager on any lapses in meeting the project quarterly match obligation.

Accounting – Supervise the Finance Officer in performing the following tasks.

(Under take the performance of the tasks in the absence of the Finance Officer):

Ensure that required financial controls are in place to avoid unauthorized use of funds, and that prior authorization is obtained before any payment.

Examine all financial documents for payment (i.e. purchase requests, purchase orders, suppliers invoices and staff request for reimbursements) and ensure the completeness, accuracy and validity of financial data, including accounting classification and computations

Record financial transactions into SAP; ensure on-time, accurate data entry and completing journal entries for non-routine expenses as necessary

Monitor the project bank account transactions to ensure that adequate funds are available all times to cover project operations, review and reconcile the bank account on a monthly basis

Generate and provide routine financial statements from SAP as and when required.

Review petty cash payments on a regular basis to ensure adherence to Plan policies; replenish as necessary

Oversee the issuance and collection of project and staff travel advances, reconciling advance accounts each month. Follow up on outstanding advances which have not been liquidated in the timeframe prescribed by Plan policy, and resolve any queries with individual employees and involve their supervisors where necessary.

Make payments to GEC project activities participants in cash or through bank and mobile money transfers as necessary.

Financial Management and Reporting:

Monitor financial management of GEC project funds to ensure consistency with agreed technical plan and actual implementation, and monitor the projected expenditures against their actual incurrence.

Implement and monitor systems of checks and balances consistent with standard accounting practices, and bring instances of non-compliance or financial risks to the attention of the Operations Manager

Participate in project procurement processes and expenditure payments whenever requested by the Operations Manager or Team Leader. Prepare Plan’s GEC-T project monthly bank reconciliation reports from review by the Country Finance Manager.

Prepare accurate and timely financial reports in line with donor requirements.

Reconciling expenditure in General Ledger (GL) and grants ensuring that all account lines (WBS) are correctly charged, monitoring and reconciling any exceptions identified.

Liaise with project managers to provide variance explanations on all financial reports submitted.

Work with Program Team, Partners and appropriate country office staff in the development of quarterly and monthly forecasts.

Supporting the preparation of budget amendment requests (alongside the project manager and the grants coordinator), compliant with donor requirements

Monitoring commitments and accruals on all grants; ensuring adequate documentation for accrual and that accruals are paid and cleared within the next 30 days

Support the preparation of monthly grants expenditure forecasts together with partners; monitoring movements in the grants income and expenditure and alerting the Operations Manager of any unusual items in SAP.

Review of payment documents and ensure WBS Lines and GL Account codes are correct and necessary amount of funding available

Ensure adherence to the country’s grants financial and accounting requirements as per requirements of the donors, other organizational policies and procedures to support sound grants financial management within the organization

Ensure that partners complies to Plan International procurement procedures (unless the Partner procedure is approved), when procurement goods and services.

Grant financial set-up and compliance:

Maintain an awareness of the donor conditions on financial management within each (FAD) and guide programme teams accordingly

Participate in new grants start-up, and where required facilitate sessions on financial management, partner budgets, advances and liquidations

Support the set-up on new grants within SAP and lead all aspects of maintaining GEC grant data information in SAP.

Support the review and approval of new Project Outlines (PO) and modifications where necessary.

Grant closure, Audits and risk management:

Support the quarterly PWC review processes and work with the Operations Manager to ensure that all documents area provided to PWC during the review.

Support the closure of grants through timely alerts to project team of pending end date for expenditure, and supporting with reasonable timescales for payments and liquidations to ensure all these fall within the project period

Support the admin department and the grants coordinators with the compilation of asset registers for each grant, ensuring alignment with the expenditure reported to donors.

Where necessary, support the internal assurance, audit team on all grants audits, including accompanying auditors on field visits.

Develop and maintain a comprehensive filing system both hard and soft copies for all financial reports and agreements pertaining to GEC grant.

Participate in due diligence assessment

Perform  any other duties that may be assigned from time to time

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Program Staff – Medium

• Grants staff – High

• HR Manager – Medium

• Finance Manager – High

• Program Accountants – High

• PUMs – High

• Operations manager-High

External stakeholders

• Partners (Medium)

• NOs (Low)

Communication channels

• All

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Technical expertise:

Ability to analyse grant expenditure against budgets for unusual trends

Ability to draft clear and precise report in responding to grants queries

A good understanding of donor requirements, Plan financial systems and grants management system for efficiency and compliance

Ability to work independently with minimal supervision

Must have very good interpersonal relationship with colleagues and supervisors

Knowledge

Qualification and Experience

University degree in Finance/Accountant from a recognized and reputable institution

Minimum, a Student of Accountancy professional course such as CAT, ACCA,CPA,CIMA from a recognized institution.

Minimum of 3 years’ experience in a similar role in a non-governmental organization

At least 2 years’ experience of developing, monitoring and reporting  on donor budgets

Understanding of donor conditions and requirements relating to financial management

Good knowledge of grant management cycle

Fair knowledge of project management

Skills

Problem solving skills

Good team player

Proficient in Excel (essential) and other Microsoft applications

Good communication skills both oral and written

Ability to deliver to tight deadlines

Behaviours

Independent minded, objective and demonstrate a sense of integrity.

Organized, methodical and meticulous

Innovation and willingness to learn at a faster rate

Remains calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations

Aware of impact on others and adjusting own behaviour accordingly

Tolerant of difference – cultural sensitivity in relation to its impact on HR

GENERAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Child and Young People Safeguarding Policy

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for child and young people safeguarding policy (CYPSP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

PLAN INTERNATIONAL’S VALUES

Location:          Country Office- Freetown

Type of Role:    Finance & Grant Accountant (Nationals only)

Reports to:       Project Operations Manager

Grade:               D1

Closing Date:   3rd November, 2019

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy.

As an international child centred community development organisation, Plan International is fully committed to promoting the realisation of children’s rights including their right to protection from violence and abuse. That means we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. We must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for. Our organisation is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We will provide equality of opportunity and will not tolerate discrimination on any grounds. We foster an organisational culture that embraces and exemplifies our commitment to gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion while supporting staff to adopt good practice, positive attitudes and principles of gender equality and inclusion.