Project Accountant
BACKGROUND
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has been providing relief and development services in the Horn of Africa since 1997. Using a protection of human rights framework, DRC has mainly focused on Somalis who are displaced by conflict. Programmes include protection, livelihoods, food and NFI distribution, water and sanitation, and advocacy amongst others. There are 4 main programme offices in Somali region, one in Yemen, one in Kenya and one regional office in Nairobi. There are also non operational region wide initiatives, focusing on advocacy and capacity building, which are supported from the Nairobi regional office. Currently there is over 150 DRC staff in the region. The last 2 years have seen some growth in programme size, but primarily there has been a growth in the number of support and management functions demanded and required by the programme offices, in order to maintain quality and accountability.
PURPOSE
The purpose of the project accountant position is to support in managing and coordinating all financial aspects of the program to ensure there is optimal compliance with contract obligations. In order to achieve this, the project accountant, shall support the interpretation and enforcement of all contract obligations in sub recipient contracts, provide on continuous support, supervision and advice to sub recipients to comply with standard contract clauses to enhance compliance.
The project accountant shall support the finance and admin coordinator in developing grants portfolio performance reports with a view to monitoring and ensuring that DRC, donor and sub-grants budgets are effectively and timely utilized as per program work plan and targets, review sub recipients financial reports submitted against program targets and sub reciepient contract provisions in consultation with relevant program staffs.
The project accountant will be directly involved on day to day operations of Kakuma finance unit under the supervision of Finance and Administration Coordinator.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Sub grantees Management
- Management of sub grantees by ensuring financial reports are received on time as per specific contracts and properly filed for future reference, reviewing financial reports and support documents, follow up on any matters arising from received documentation.
- Play a supporting role in Grant Kick off and Close-Out meetings, as well as in general grant management meetings.
- Monitor partners budget absorption to ensure accurate tracking of implementation, progress and timely alerts to potential challenges/obstacles
- Ensure comprehensive grant files are maintained up to date
- Tracking of funds disbursements from donors and to partners
- Act as a liaison with the various implementing partners on financial and compliance issues
- Provide standard reporting templates to partners
- Consolidation of partner’s financial reports and reconciliation to DRC financial reports (BFU).
- Coordinate all internal, external grant review and audit processes to partners
- Finance operations
- Maintain cashbooks as recommended and ensure timely submission to DRC Country Office
- Monitor petty cash and conduct weekly cash counts.
- Ensure cash counts are at least done once per week and at the end of each month before closing cashbooks.
- Monitor cash-flow and ensure timely Kakuma programmes cash requests to Country Office
- Ensure that there are proper supporting documents for all the transactions.
- Ensure costs are shared fairly, transparently and consistently according to DRC and donor policies.
- Ensure timely payment of salaries, suppliers, partners, etc.
- Supervise the submission of financial scanned vouchers to Country Office
- Monitor liability control accounts on monthly basis and ensure timely clearance of any outstanding balances.
- Preparation of quality financial reports and submission to Country Office for approval before submitting to the donor on timely basis.
- Ensure that accurate financial information is provided for purpose of planning, budget development and expenditure controls.
Qualifications Required
- Bachelor of Commerce (Finance/Accounting option); Business management qualification such as CPA, ACCA or equivalent is an added advantage
- At least 4 years’ relevant experience in a similar role.
- Experience working with NGOs and donor-funded projects
- Experience in working in a consortium and with implementing partners
- Demonstrated experience in capacity building and mentoring.
- Fluent in written and spoken English.
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills, working with different groups and nationalities.
- Good knowledge of excel and other analytical tools
Essential Competencies:
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills, working with different groups, partners and nationalities.
- Strong initiative and self-motivated, with a strong commitment to teamwork and humanitarian principles.
- Flexible, enthusiastic and willingness to learn from others.
- Ability to multi-task and cope with competing demands under tight deadlines.
- Identify priority activities and assignments, adjust priorities as required.
- Ability to establish and maintain good working relationships in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environment.
Position Description
Start of Contract: February 2017
Duration: 15 Months (3 month probation)
Reports to: Project Coordinator
LOCAL CANDIDATES STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY
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 (http://www.drc.dk/HAF.4265.0.html). All DRC staff must be committed to the Red Cross Code of Conduct, as well as the Core Humanitarian Standards.
Posting details:
This position is field based and a non-family duty station. Kakuma lies at Safety Level 3.
Application Details:
Qualified candidates are invited to submit their applications which should include a 1-page cover letter clearly stating their motivation and qualifications and a CV. Applications should include contact details of three professional referees who have supervised the candidate in the last five years. One referee must be the applicant’s most recent manager. Only applications that address the stipulated duties and meet the required qualifications will be considered.
We only accept applications sent via our online-application form on www.drc.ngo under Vacancies. Applications should be sent no later than: 26th January, 2017.
If you have questions or are facing problems with the online application process, please contact [email protected]
Danish Refugee Council does not charge any kind of fee at any stage of the recruitment process nor does it use recruitment agents.
Danish Demining Group (DDG) is widely recognised as provider of efficient and community-oriented solutions to human security problems caused by landmines and other explosive remnants of war as well as small arms and light weapons.
DDG is part of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), which is a humanitarian, non-governmental, non-profit organisation founded in 1956 that works in more than 35 countries throughout the world. We are the largest humanitarian NGO in Denmark and consistently ranked as one of the world’s best NGOs according to Global_Geneva.
We fulfil our mandate by providing direct assistance to conflict-affected populations – refugees, internally displaced people and host communities in the conflict areas of the world. We also advocate on behalf of conflict-affected populations globally on the basis of humanitarian principles and the Human Rights Declaration. Our work and long-term strategies are guided by our five core values: Humanitarian approach – Respect – Independence & neutrality – Inclusion – Honesty & transparency.
You can read more about our vision and work on drc.ngo.
Application due:
26-01-2017
Workplace:
Kakuma – Kenya
More Information
- Job City Kakuma
