Country Finance Officer, Islamabad - Islamic Help

Purpose of the Position

The Country Finance Officer (CFO) based in Islamabad is expected to assist the Country Manager in the development of financial systems and procedures for IH Pakistan program in line with IH UK policies and procedures. He/she is expected to ensure the accurate implementation of all these procedures and systems at all level. CFO will manage all the finance team in country office and field offices/projects in terms of technical supervision. He/She is also expected to provide technical training and support to project coordinators.

Major responsibilities

Controllership:

- To ensure that the IH financial policies and procedures are implemented in a standardised manner.

- To manage the finance department activities and schedules to meet the financial reporting requirements and deadlines specified by IH head quarters in UK and donors.

- To provide the Country Manager, Program Manager and other budget holders and senior staff members with monthly actual-to-budget expenditure reports and analysis for all grants and budgets.

- To ensure that on a monthly basis balance sheet reconciliations are completed and quarterly FRPs are produced on a timely basis and reviewed with the CM.

- To closely monitor all financial activities, and keep the Country Manager advised of all situations which have the potential for a negative impact on internal controls or financial management performance.

- To prepare all donor financial reports in respect to accounting, legal and contractual requirements and ensure the review of such reports by the RD, CM, Program Manager, and UK office prior to submission.

To be responsible for coordinating external (donor, audit firm, government, etc.) and internal control audits, and initiate and implement actions necessary to correct weaknesses.

- In collaboration with the Admin Officer, oversee the protection of the country programme assets (cash, inventory, etc.) through the enforcement of internal control policies and procedures including that fixed asset inventories are updated regularly.

- To maintain up-to date knowledge of and implement national government requirements and regulations related to financial matters including statutory deductions from national staff salaries such as income tax, social security, etc

Training & Staff Management:

- To be responsible for the management of the staff of the finance department.

- To develop and implement staff development plan for the finance department staff both in the Head Office and the field offices to develop their capacity.

- To ensure that job descriptions of the finance department staff are up-to date and staff are clear with their roles and responsibilities.

- To carry out timely Performance and Development Reviews (PDR) of all finance department staff.

- To facilitate and provide basic training, technical support and guidance to the country program staff, particularly budget holders, for skills improvement in the areas of budget preparation and monitoring, budget revision, reporting, and internal control.

Treasury:

- To supervise all country office bank relations and bank account activities including negotiation of fees, interest and currency exchange rates.

- In compliance with IH policies and procedures and in consultation with the CM and Program Manager, to regularly review and implement country specific policies such as authorization limits, cash holding limits, cash movements, credit terms, advance payments, use of bank payment instruments, etc.

- To oversee the timely preparation, review and approval of all monthly bank account and cash reconciliations.

- To regularly review, implement, and monitor systems and procedures necessary to maintain accurate forecasts of cash requirements for meeting future spending, including commitments.

- To be responsible for timely preparation and follow-up/handling of Cash Transfer Requests to UK and ensure that appropriate cash balances are maintained to facilitate programme implementation.

- To ensure the development and implementation of a plan to minimize the country’s foreign exchange exposure to currency gains and losses.

- To maintain up-to-date records of all grant payments made by donors and in consultation with the CM, Programme Manager, RD, and the UK office, to follow-up and supervise the timely collection of contractual and other receivables including outstanding payments from donors.

Budget:

- To assist the CM and Managers with the preparation and revision of program and project proposal budgets including multi-annual budgets.

- To coordinate and provide technical support and guidance to all budget holders in the preparation of the country operating budget and be responsible for compiling and producing the country budget.

- To coordinate and lead the budget revision processes including producing the revised budgets, ensuring that they are reviewed and approved by the CM, and submitted to UK in a timely manner and according to the IH standards.

- To produce and facilitate the review of actual to budget expenditures with the CM

Other

- Assist in the assessment and selection of potential Implementing Partners

- Financial monitoring and capacity building of Implementing Partners

- To conduct regular site visits to all programme locations and carry out audits where necessary

- Any other job assigned by line manager

RELATIONSHIP

Responsible For (Staff): Finance Assistant

Liaises With: Country Manager, Project Coordinators, Bank, Suppliers, Allied staff, partners, Programme officers.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

- MBA, M. Comm or Finalist / Associate member of ICMAP, ICAP or ACCA.

- At least 3-5 years work experience in similar role.

WORK ENVIRONEMNT

Must have good prioritisation skills, with effective decision making abilities, to cope in a dynamic environment and to operate on multiple fronts simultaneously. Islamic Help as a humanitarian organisation responds to emergencies which may affect routine work.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Responsibility to manage transaction volume of around 2-3 million UK Pounds per annum. This limit may increase if Islamic Help decides on an emergency response.

Ensure best value of money and facilitate process to improve accountability to beneficiaries and donors (HAP)

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Islamic Help, like other INGOs working in Pakistan, sometimes has to operate in risky environment/areas. Islamic Help has security management plan to deal with threats and to minimise the risk.

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