REPORTS TO; Country Director
DIRECT REPORTS; Finance Officer, Finance Assistants, Grants Officer and other related roles.
THE ORGANISATION
Plan International is a rights-based development and humanitarian organization working for better lives for all children. We are independent of government and have no political or religious affiliation. Our purpose is to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.
Our global strategy has a specific focus on girls, as they are often the most marginalized and most often left behind. We have committed ourselves to the ambitious target of reaching 100 million girls over 5 years, to ensure they can learn, lead, decide and thrive. This is our contribution to reaching the sustainable development goals, and in particular the goals on gender equality. Our organization is transforming itself to meet this enormous challenge everywhere we work. We need bold, forward-thinking and innovative individuals to lead our country operations, driving change and delivering results that will allow us to have Girls Standing Strong for Global Change.
Plan international has opened an office in Somaliland and started programmes that focus on child protection, education and youth economic empowerment programming both humanitarian and development setting, working with/through partners and providing technical support to INGOs, Somaliland NGOs and the Government of Somaliland in Plan’s areas of expertise.
The purpose of this role is to formulate and implement the strategic direction and plans for the Finance Department ensuring the provision of financial management support services to the Country office and to Program Areas. This position is responsible for maintaining and implementing financial policies, procedures, standards and guidelines for in country operations in line with Plan’s Operations Manual. Providing strong internal controls to ensure the effective use and management of Plan’s financial resources and spending within budgets.
ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES
Business Planning Processes 20%
• Responsible to maintain and implement financial policies, procedures, standards and guidelines for in-country operations in line with global and local standards
• Reviewing financial and accounting transactions to ensure that they are compliant
• Responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the department and the implementation and maintenance of the financial procedures necessary for effective accountability and adequate internal control.
• Install internal controls to ensure compliance to audit requirements, provide information to internal and external auditors as required, prepare and implementation plan of action on audit recommendations of accounting issues.
• Implement administrative policy compliance for all accounting documents and books of accounts to meet audit requirement and standards and act as overall custodian of such documents book and records.
• Periodically review the existing systems and recommend necessary improvements and ensure the installation of internal control as part of audit readiness.
• Manage the operations of the SAP system to meet Plan’s spending and financial reporting requirements
Cost Recovery 15%
• Ensure each grant project meets the cost recovery target and report on monthly basis.
• Report on the planned cost recovery, confirmed and funding gap to management on monthly basis.
• Ensure cost recovery is effectively done through standardised procedures.
Treasury 15%
• The accounting system and cash needs are efficiently supporting the achievement of Plan goals.
• Monitor the maintenance of all banking transactions and check required balances, bank statement reconciliations, correspondences and records and ensure the prevention of expenditure in excess of approved budgets.
• Request for funds fortnightly based on Country cash flow.
Financial Reporting and Analysis 20%
• Prepares monthly financial statements with accompanying schedules, yearend reports and other financial reports to ensure accurate reporting
• Provide sufficient monitoring of financial activities throughout the fiscal year through the timely and effective control and implementation of the Country Office and Program Areas expenditures in accordance with the prepared and approved budget guidelines.
• Prepare and share with management monthly financial reports with clear highlights on areas of concern.
• Review and approval of financial reports prepared for submission to the donors to ensure accuracy and completeness.
• Approve Balance Sheet accounts on monthly basis.
• Timely submission of Regional and IH reports.
• Support regulatory returns and tax compliance as required.
• Timely processing of Payroll
Compliance and Risk Management 15%
• Ensures that all procedures follow Plan policies, procedures, and donor requirements.
• Ensure monthly reconciliations between Plan data and Implementing Partner data, between Excel Financial report and partner general ledger are reconciling.
• Ensure audit readiness by instituting effective internal controls.
• Ensure audit actions are implemented and alternative actions taken as required to address gaps.
Partnership Management 15%
• Responsible for partnership management, monitoring and risk management.
• Relationships and processes relating to partners including partner assessment are effectively managed.
• Ensure partner due diligence assessment as part of risk assessment.
• Maintaining also monitoring of advances to partners and overall performance.
• Regular risk assessment of partnership.
LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
• Lead the assigned financial & accounting staff towards successful management and accomplishment of finance and accounting related functions.
• Recommend/participate in the hiring of assigned staff positions as well as the appropriate disciplinary action to staff in cases of on-compliance to Code of Discipline and Plan policies and procedures.
• Conduct performance appraisal for all assigned staff including the setting of individual performance standards and effectively recommend personnel actions.
• Create effective channels for communication, staff development and group efforts towards the realization of departmental goals and objectives.
• Capacity building of Plan finance and Partner finance staff.
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES
• Facilitate and Coordinate business planning processes.
• Allocate approved annual budget to Country Office and provide CMT (Country Management Team) the required financial management information and reports on budget control, variances reports, expenditures and funds available.
• Responsible for budget management and monitoring and ensuring spending is within budget.
• Institute tools and measures to ensure expenditure is within budget and guard against disallowed costs.
• Establish complete grants budgets which include cost recovery of staff costs and support services.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Qualifications
• Bachelor/Master’s Degree in Accounting or equivalent area and ACCA/CIMA
• Five years working experience in a similar role working in a computerized accounting office in an NGO setup.
• Eloquent appreciation of budgeting and budgetary control.
• Strong experience in working with donor funded projects e.g. USAID, CIDA, GIZ etc
• Good understanding of taxation and other statutory laws which will hinge on finance
• Proficient in computer skills and use of relevant software and other applications, e.g. word processing, spreadsheet, database, internet
TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
Knowledge:
• Knowledge in using SAP or D365 Microsoft Dynamics
Skills
• Good analytical skills.
• Strong skills in facilitation and negotiation.
• Strategic thinker
• Team player
• Ability to prioritize work effectively for execution with limited resources.
• Ability to work independently without close supervision.
• Strong planning and organizational skills.
• Strong Communication skills.
• Proficient in computer skills and use of relevant software and other applications.
Behaviour
• Acts decisively and adapts plans quickly to respond to emerging situations and changing environments
• Helps others to recognise and manage stress by showing empathy, prioritising workload and role modelling self-care in stressful situations
• Promotes and guarantees safety and security behaviours and procedures for self and the team.
• Takes the time and patience to understand the concerns of other people and takes care of them as individuals.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.
We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
Plan International 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 foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.
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.
This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with, and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.
A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.
Disclaimer: Plan International is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate applicants on any basis. We also do not charge Job seekers any fees at any point of the recruitment process.
Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply for this position.
