Grant Accountant 54 views0 applications

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 a Grants Accountant. The Grants Accountant will maintain quality grants management for GEC Project. Reporting to the Operations Manager, this position will work closely Plan Sierra Leone Country Office staff, in finance and grants to ensure timely and accurate grant reporting, maintenance of grant records, and actively participate in the revision processes of awarded grants.

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.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

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.

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 for review by the Operations 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

UKNO and Consortium partner staff in Freetown and in the districts to ensure: 1) timely and quality implementation of safeguarding and child protection activities, 2) monitoring of child protection issues and safe reporting and 3) updates of the consortium safeguarding self-assessment and safeguarding action plan to meet compliance with the GEC safeguarding minimum standards..

EXTERNAL

• Represent the Consortium externally in the child protection networks promoting girls education and safe schools advocacy at Freetown level.
• Ensure coordination of the Project’s child protection activities with relevant stakeholders (e.g. MBSSE and GATE).

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.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Grants staff, Finance Manager, Programme Accountants, Operations Manager, PUMs  (HIGH)
• Program Staff, HROD Manager (MEDIUM)

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

• Partners (MEDIUM)
• NOs (LOW)

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

• All

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

• Technical expertise:
• Ability to analyze 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

Behaviors

• 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

Plan International’s Values

https://plan-international.org/about-us/careers-plan-international/our-values-work

To apply for this job, kindly click on “Apply”. Your application should include:

• A cover letter
• A comprehensive CV including details of two referees, one of whom should be your current or most recent supervisor

Only short-listed candidates shall be contacted. References will be taken and background and anti-terrorism checks will be carried out in conformity with Plans Child Protection Policy. Plan follows an equal opportunity policy and actively encourages diversity welcoming applications from all especially women and people living with disability.