Job Title: Head of Finance Department
Organization: Action Against Hunger (ACF)
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
About US:
Action Against Hunger-ACF, worldwide is recognized as a leader in the fight against malnutrition, with a purpose to save the lives of undernourished children while providing communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger. ACF implements innovative and life-saving programs in the sectors of Nutrition, Food Security & Livelihoods (FSL), and Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH) through capacity building projects in collaboration with government structures. Over the past 30 years of ACF has been delivering robust operations in Uganda and has gained significant knowledge and expertise using a multi-sectoral approach to design and implement program intervention based on the context, geared towards long-term solutions to hunger both in refugee and Host communities. Since 2013, the organization has been worked in the refugee settlements of Northern and Western Uganda providing emergency response as well as long-term development interventions.
Job Summary: The Finance HoD finance will contribute to the definition and implementation of the country strategy by providing overall budgetary and financial management. The Finance HoD will lead on high-quality financial operations and accounting for the country office. He/She is also expected to ensure high quality receivables and cash management for the mission. The Finance HoD finance will contribute to the definition and implementation of the country strategy by providing overall budgetary and financial management. The Finance HoD will lead on high-quality financial operations and accounting for the country office. He/She is also expected to ensure high quality receivables and cash management for the mission.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Contribute to the definition of mission strategy
- Creating the budgetary framework of the mission.
- Make financial and budgetary information available to other departments to facilitate the establishment of the country strategy.
- Produce high quality and timely financial and budgetary contributions to “proposals” and reports for funding bodies.
- Contributing a financial and budgetary perspective to coordination discussions.
- Advising other departments on their financial and budgetary needs
- Ensuring that financial and budgetary needs and constraints took into account in the preparation of projects.
- Collecting data and writing the financial and budgetary section of proposals and reports to funding bodies and financing plans.
- Ensuring that his/her contribution to “proposals” and reports is consistent with the rest of these documents.
- Representing the mission to outside bodies on issues of finance and budget and developing a network for the exchange of information and good practice.
Ensure high quality accounting for the mission
- Disseminating information about accounting procedures throughout the mission and ensuring they are observed.
- Correctness of accounting and analytical entries
- Ensure timely sharing of the monthly accounting bundle.
- Verifications of cash stocks and bank accounts according to ACF regulations.
- Ensuring that parameters of the accounting software are properly set up.
- Ensuring that all accounting, extra-accounting and expatriate data are entered into the accounting software.
- Verifying bankbooks and validate bank reconciliations on monthly basis
- Supervising the checking of invoices and ensuring that they are archived according to ACF procedures.
- Verifying and approving the monthly accounting bundle and ensuring that it is forward to headquarters on time.
- Verifying the physical cash count in capital and in the course of visits to bases.
Ensure high quality cash management for the mission
- Designing, promulgating and ensuring compliance with cash management procedures across the mission.
- Ensure availability and safekeeping of the necessary cash.
- Adapting methods for cash transfer in the light of local conditions and security considerations
- Monitoring the correspondence between cash forecast and the BFU.
- Anticipating treasury risks and resolving difficulties.
- Ensure adherence of cash management procedures adapted to local conditions, suggesting alternatives in the light of any changes, authorizing and organizing the transfer of funds to the bases.
- Consolidating and approving the treasury forecast of the mission and forward it to Operations Director for review and validation.
- Passing on payments made through Regional Office.
- Monitoring contractual payments made by funding bodies and signed off in the field.
- Approving the methods of payment of on-going contracts and ensure payment by the due date.
- Authorizing the payment of mission expenses according to ACF procedures
Provide financial and budgetary management
- Promulgation of and compliance with the financial rules of funding bodies
- Establishing the annual budget.
- Leadership in budgetary matters at mission level and steering the process of budget forecasting.
- Cost analysis and issuing budgetary alerts when necessary
- Monitoring financial risks and issuing alerts when necessary
- Providing the necessary materials for negotiations with funding bodies and producing documents to funding bodies
- Calculating and ratifying project budgets
- Preparing and revising the mission’s annual budget.
- Producing, checking and forwarding budget follow-up (including forecast) to the coordination team and to base Program Managers, raising issues of relevance and alerts, Director Finance and Administration.
- Ratifying the circulation and authorization thresh holds of expenditures laid down by Logistics.
- Identifying financial risks (exchange rate fluctuations, inflation…), making Heads of Department aware of financial risks in their field, alerting the Director Finance and Administration, providing support in the management of risk.
- Production and archiving of financial reports according to the deadlines and formats required by funding bodies.
- Supervision of the pre-audit of funding bodies’ financial contracts and responding to queries raised by auditors.
Promote and ensure financial collaboration and coordination with mission partners
- Participating in the process of selecting partners and validating the financial risk analysis provided by the bases
- Defining with partners the modes of financial and budgetary management in the framework of joint projects.
- Validating the financial and budgetary aspects of partnership conventions and agreements.
- Taking full advantage at mission level of all innovative practices in the field of financial and budgetary management in partnerships.
Prevent and manage fraud and corruption
- Identifying risks of fraud and corruption in his/her field of competence and setting up preventive and monitoring mechanisms
- Making his/her team aware of the risks of fraud and corruption
- Alerting the Senior management to cases of fraud and corruption and undertaking corrective action
- Putting in place and monitoring recommendations arising from the day-to-day control and audit
Manage the Finance team in capital and be Technical/Support Manager of Finance Managers in the bases
- The day-to-day management of his/her team (guidance, follow-up, motivation…)
- Evaluating the performance and developing the skills of his/her team members
- Management of the teams for which s/he is support/technical Manager.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant must hold a Master’s Degree in Finance and Accounting with a professional qualification.
- Eight years of work experience in senior finance management level preferably in reputable INGOs
- Excellent experience in proposal and report writing, donor rules and regulations, validation procedures, coordination of processes.
- Knowledge of key institutional donors, including ECHO, USAID (FFP, OFDA), SDC, SIDA, GAC, OCHA, DFID.
- Proven ability to work independently under minimal guidance, pressure, and tight deadlines
- Communication skills, and a diplomatic, but firm approach to obtain buy in and contributions from a range of staff involved in proposal and report production
- Capacity building and facilitations skills
- Initiative and ability to able to work independently and propose solutions to diverse problems.
- Experience of working within a team and team building.
- Experience in living and working in insecure and volatile contexts and in shared accommodation
- Proven ability to work in multi-donor short term contract situations and ability to effectively juggle priorities to meet the needs of the Country Office.
- Sound experience in finances and management skills and knowing different accounting software’s
- High level of integrity, discipline and professionalism; ability to maintain confidentiality of information and processes
- Very good in both verbal and written in Amharic and English languages
- Very good computer skills including Microsoft Word and Excel.
- Highly organized, motivated, capable to learn and develop,
- Willing to travel frequently to the field
- High commitment to confidentiality
- Ability to provide or recommend solutions to problems; show flexibility to assume additional responsibilities
- Outstanding interpersonal, communication and presentation skills, including the presence to deal effectively with diverse constituencies including senior management
- Commitment to Action Against Hunger’s work and values.
How to Apply:
All candidates should apply online at the link below.
Click Here
Deadline: 14th April 2023
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