Job Opportunity: Regional Finance Coordinator – East Africa, Islamic Relief Worldwide

Islamic Relief Worldwide is an International NGO with headquarters in Birmingham, United Kingdom. We are registered with the UK Charity Commission, and we work in over 40 countries to reduce the impact of conflicts and natural disasters on the world’s poorest population and empower them regardless of race, religion or gender. We are a member of the British NGO for Overseas Development, Disasters Emergency Committee and have global cooperation with many international organizations, UN agencies and NGOs. www.islamic-relief.org.

In East Africa, we work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan with a program that aims at reducing the impact of conflicts and natural disasters and empowering communities to help themselves and get out of the cycle of marginalization and chronic vulnerability.

The East Africa Regional Office provides support to the country offices in order to improve the quality of our programs, consolidate our learning to ensure lasting benefits for the communities we serve, and strengthen relations with the humanitarian actors, donors, governments, and civil society organizations.

The Regional Office in its pursuit to support and strengthen its operations, seeks to employ motivated, hardworking and pro-active individuals to fill in the following position

Job Title: Regional Finance Coordinator – East Africa

Reporting To: Regional Finance Manager

Base Location: Nairobi with frequent visit to East Africa Country Offices

Job Purpose:

Provide financial support to the regional office and support the capacity building of country office finance staff under the supervision of Regional Finance Manager, maintain good relations and understanding between IRW, Regional and Country offices and finance functions on a regular basis and review donor reports, budget proposals, monthly financial information, consolidate reports and produce timely and accurate financial information at regional level

Key Accountabilities

The job holder is accountable for fulfilling his or her role and responsibilities in line with Islamic values and principles of fairness, humanity, honesty, respect and fair treatment of his/her colleagues and staff.

1. Final Review and approve budgets related to the partners / donors are prepared in the field offices.

• Ensure standard budget guidelines complied with while preparing institutional donor and IR Partner budgets. Final Review and approved proposals and grant agreements/contracts to ensure they are as per IRW guidelines.
• Ensure budget review sheet has been signed by country finance manager and Program Manager after get reviewed the budget prepared. Check the sheet with actual budget and note the difference if any and get it corrected by Country finance Managers. Consult regional finance manager for the issues and matters beyond jurisdiction

2. Consolidate monthly financial reports, Review and Approve Donor Reports, Funds Management, reviews external Audits.

• Consolidate monthly financial reports, funds reports, donor financial reports and quarterly financial reports of the region.
• Ensure country offices project support cost is been cross charged with the donor funded projects
• Ensure country offices maintain funds management system as per IRW guidelines whereby funds of projects must be reconciled on monthly basis and restrictive funds should not be used for other projects without prior approval from IRW finance.
• Analyze and process where necessary field financial data to ensure that IR consolidated financial figures are true and fair reflection of the current financial situation.
• Review (and in some cases get approved by regional finance Manager) financial report prior to submission to the donors to ensure they are a true and fair reflection of the financial position of the grant.
• Provide IRW finance and donors with complete, accurate and timely financial reports, including institutional donor reports where required for all projects implemented in the regional countries, in the required formats.
• Ensure and review the field offices funds reports and year end balances are prepared appropriately. To reconcile field office income and in-Kind donation on monthly basis.
• Follow up on last year external audit report management comments, field visit reports, and quarterly reports.

3. Compliance

• Ensure to maintain financial systems and controls to ensure the efficiency, integrity and transparency of the country offices and sub-office operations in accordance with IR guidelines, Donor Guidelines, national legal requirements and internationally accepted accounting standards.
• Make sure country offices finance function adhere to the financial compliance to the donors and statutory regulations.
• Ensure Financial Compliance of Reporting from Field Office and minimizing risk of non compliance of donors’ obligations.
• Ensure all processes in are standardized and adhered to by each staff member also discuss financial management check list and work plan with finance to achieve the desired level.
• Ensure finance in each assigned country is using the standard formats, standard chart of account, and comply with IRW financial guidelines

4. Financial Accounting & Audits

• Support and ensure a system where by country finance managers maintain standard financial accounting i.e. receipts, payments, reconciliations etc. and efficient delivery of service.
• Support country finance managers to maintain a system for regularly conducting donor and statutory audits and take corrective actions for the management letter issued.
• Ensure country finance managers submit funds transfer requests as per requirement of cash flow keeping in view updated cash flow requirements.
• Ensure that internal audit and external audit recommendations and findings are addressed by each field office in the Region

5. System development

• To assist in the preparation of global financial guidelines, design, update formats and guidelines, financial systems within countries, etc.

6. Capacity Building

• Support development of staff and partners to increase their competence in preparation of financial reports, donor financial reports in line with donor reporting requirements.
• To guide and support finance managers in ensuring for the achievement of MAC (Minimum Acceptable Criteria) developed by AX team, so that AX can be introduced within country.
• To meet the country management team during visit and get ensure from finance manager that financial reports are being discussed on regular basis with different stakeholders.
• Provide support to the Regional Finance Manager and capacity of finance staff in Field Offices staff is sufficiently built to ensure that future donor reporting is done correctly and efficiently for all donors

7. Limitation and Authority

• Being responsible for the technical input of programs budgets, the post holder need to fully understand donor compliance issues and needs to be competent in book keeping and financial management
• All contract agreement and donor reports should be signed off by the post holder to make sure they are accurate. Errors made in the advice and accuracy of coordination can lead to significant financial risk to the organization both in terms of potential payback to donors and in potentially damaging IRW reputation regarding financial integrity

8. Field Visit Travel and Emergency Deployment

• The Regional Finance Coordinator is expected to spend a minimum of 40% of his/ her time in the regional countries for financial support as well as cover the gap in assigned countries of Finance Managers when required

Knowledge, Skills and Qualifications

• Good management and financial accounting experience, including a pro-active approach to budget monitoring, reporting with over 5 years’ experience
• Degree in Accountancy/Finance and Intermediate Level Qualified or studying final level of AAT/ACCA/CIMA/ICAEW or equivalent professional qualifications
• Experience of donor, financial accounting, budgets and yearend financial reporting
• Excellent communication skills to liaison with regional assigned countries. Strong English communication skills (verbal as well as writing
• Advance excel skills; in designing and manipulating reports
• Ability to manage work load of multiple and remote locations, ability to think strategically
• Ability to work as a team player in a multinational national environment
• Must have previous exposure and experience of preparing /reviewing budgets.
• Experience in operating and extracting data from complex accounting systems