BACKGROUND
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a humanitarian, non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1956 that works in more than 30 countries throughout the world. DRC provides direct assistance to conflict-affected populations – refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs) and host communities across the world. The organization has a global annual turnover of US$ 200 million.
In Uganda, DRC has been working for the protection of refugees and IDPs since 1999. DRC has actively protected men, women and children who were displaced due to wars within Uganda and in the wider Great Lakes region, and provided them with sustainable livelihoods solutions and other basic services.
ABOUT ECHO PROJECT
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is presently leading a Consortium of four NGOs (DRC, LWF, Windle Trust Uganda and REACH) which has been selected to implement a program in West Nile to provide lifesaving and sustainable WASH, livelihoods and education services to South Sudanese refugees and surrounding host communities. The Consortium is implementing a 1-year project funded under the European Commission, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations – ECHO, to respond to refugee settlements and host communities in West Nile of Uganda.
PURPOSE
The Finance coordinator will provide day-to-day financial and grants support to the implementation of the ECHO project. The incumbent will also be responsible for ensuring grants compliance as per the DRC and donor policies and regulations and will also support the financial administration of the EU project. The jobholder will act as the main contact point in relation to fund accountability and documentation received from ECHO consortia partners.
KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Finance:Finance Control:
- Manage all financial aspects of the ECHO project in line with EU requirements.
- Oversee financial aspect of sub-grant tracking and subcontracting, ensuring forward planning and preparation for donor reporting, adherence with EU and consortium requirements and timelines and timely submission of sub-grantee reports from the partner organizations.
- Work in liaison with the Senior Finance Officer ensures that financial management systems and records are effective and robust in order to identify and protect the assets and interests of the consortium.
- Consolidate cash flows, reporting templates, financial plans and amendments throughout the project life.
- Maintain an adequate filing system for all financial and accounting deliverables to ensure ease of access during internal/external audit.
- Monitor budget burn rates and recommend appropriate action on any significant variances (+/-10%). Notify the ECHO Project Manager of any red flag in expenditure levels.
- Participate in a procurement committee as and when needed.
Financial Reporting:
- Consolidate financial reports, fund requests and budgets in a timely fashion.
- Ensure that all financial records and accounts are compiled on time, accurately and in line with international accounting standards and donor regulations.
- Ensure all consortium members submit accurate timesheets.
- Maintain accounting records of the consortium partners this includes review of the partner booking and documentation relating to ECHO as well as ensuring correct coding of expenses into DRC books of accounts.
- Follow up on timely implementation of the recommendations to remedy significant variances. 2. Grant:
Administration of Donor Grants:
- Disseminate relevant and required conditions of the grant to the project owner and other responsible.
- Work closely with the Area Managers to ensure that funds are being spent correctly as per the regulation of the grant and reports are produced timely.
- Establish the specific requirements of the ECHO grant and ensure these are followed by the various stakeholder involved in implementation of the project grants.
- Ensure that the relevant documents including grant agreements, annexes, reports, project correspondence are up-to date both in hard copy files within DRC archive and on online grant management system (GMS).
- Ensure in-country authority delegation for the ECHO project is signed and duly updated, and archived.
- Support internal and external audits and project verification.
Reporting:
- Ensure that reports are prepared by the relevant responsible person before the deadline and is consolidated. Strictly ensure that Donor deadlines are adhered to.
- Send frequent reminders of Donor reporting deadlines well in advance to the project owners and other stakeholders.
- Consolidate and QA the reports provided by the stakeholders and send it to Donor.
- Document the submitted reports both in physical files and electronic archives.
- Ensure correct format, forms and other annexes are complete before sending the reports to Donors.
- Report to the Grants Manager on the status of the ECHO grant and compare records on a quarterly basis.
ABOUT YOU
The desired candidate must be able to conceptualize and articulate DRC vision and have the strong oral and written communication skill required to translate the vision into tangible action. The incumbent is expected to have extensive donor, government and partner engagement experiences.
Experience and understanding of refugee and displacement issues is an advantage and ideally the candidate will have a good understanding of the region.
In this position, you are expected to demonstrate each of DRC’ five core competencies:
i. Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results in a fast paced environment
ii. Collaborating: You lead initiatives and processes by involving relevant parties and encouraging feedback.
iii. Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while setting high standards
iv. Communicating: You listen to other stakeholders and staff; and you communicate concisely and persuasively
v. Demonstrating integrity: You act in line with DRC’s vision and values.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s Degree in Finance or Accounting and final certification in CPA or ACCA
- A minimum of three years’ work experience in finance or accounting in INGOs.
- Excellent knowledge in preparing major international donor reports.
- Knowledge and experience of working with Echo, EU donors.
- Working knowledge and experience in grant management in Consortium.
- Possess strong analytical and conceptual skills.
- Show commitment to accountable practices.
- Knowledge of working in challenging environments.
- Proven ability to manage large varied workloads and deal constructively with stress and periods with long hours.
- Proven ability to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines and work with limited supervision
- Proactive, stable and robust character and a good team player.
- Excellent communication skills, calm and a good sense of humor.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to establish effective working relations at all levels.
- Fluent in written and spoken English
GENERAL
Commitments:
DRC has a Humanitarian Accountability Framework, outlining its global accountability commitments. All staff are required to contribute to the achievement of this framework into the work of DRC
CONDITIONS
Availability: Immediately
Duty station: Kampala-Uganda with frequent travel to field locations (50%)
Reporting: Reports to ECHO consortium manager, Head of Finance & Administration. Directly supervised by the Senior Finance Officer based in Kampala.
Contract: 1 year contract dependent on both funding and performance. Salary and conditions in accordance with the Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of National staff.
More Information
- Job City Kampala
