Senior Finance and Administration Manager

• Type: Contract
• Location: Goma, with frequent travel to field sites, including Kinshasa representation office, Africa - Sub-Saharan
• Organisation: Merlin
  Merlin International Profile Merlin is the only UK specialist charity which responds worldwide with vital healthcare and medical relief for vulnerable people affected by natural disasters, conflict and healthcare collapse. Each year, Merlin assists more than 15 million people, in up to 20 countries, through working with local healthcare actors including government, community groups and NGOs. For more information about Merlin, please visit our website at www.merlin.org.uk. Merlin currently implements primary healthcare programmes in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, and the occupied Palestinian territories. The current portfolio of global programs can be characterized as a continuum from emergency relief projects, transition PHC programs to longer term development programs. Institutional donor support includes OFDA, DFID, ECHO, Global Fund, DEC, Rockefeller Foundation, Austcare, DCI, BUZA, UN, Japanese Government, USAID, JOA, Futures Group, Finnish Government and Band-Aid.
• Closing Date: 15-May-2008
• Description:
  Programme: Democratic Republic Of Congo Responsible To: Country Director Location: Goma, with frequent travel to field sites, including Kinshasa representation office Start Date: ASAP Duration: 12 Months Allowance: UKP18,540 - UKP22,900 per annum dependant on relevant experience, an annual cost of living allowance of UKP5,111, insurance cover, accommodation and return flights. Please note that this is an unaccompanied position. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be short-listed on a regular basis and we may offer this post before the closing date. Merlin DRC The Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) is the third largest country in Africa and one of the poorest. Decades of dictatorship and an ongoing, unresolved civil war has left much of the national infrastrucutre destroyed. Merlin has been operational in eastern DRC since 1997 when it established emergency medical support to populations in Maniema Province. Merlin teams have been providing emergency medical care to the most vulnerable, accessible populations in Maniema Province, Kasai Oriental Province, North Kivu and Orientale Province, and in response to the Goma volcanic eruption of Jan 2002. Activities include: emergency response, primary health support and supply, secondary health support and supply, reproductive health, institutional capacity building, nutrition, wat/san, rehabilitation of health facilities - Merlin is the sole source of essential medical support for 110 primary & secondary health facilities, providing health care to over 1,100,000 beneficiaries. - In Maniema Province, Merlin is implementing a USAID funded primary health care and nutrition project in ten health zones, and a DFID (British government) funded referral hospital project in the provincial capital Kindu, totaling approximately 1.8 million beneficiaries. - In North Kivu, Merlin implements a DfID funded primary healthcare project in Manguredjipa and Biena healthzones, with emergency support to IDPs within the province as well as a ECHO supported programmes in the territory of Rutshuru and is in the process to establish another programme to continue responding to the growing needs in the "petit nord"Kivu with the support of OFDA as well as an emergency watsan project with the support of UNICEF. Merlin's Goma office is a management and support office for five field-site projects in eastern DRC. The office handles the financial and reporting aspects of a multi-million dollar grant portfolio, the HR and administrative requirements for the 20 expatriates and 200 national staff, all national and international purchasing, and in-country transportation (almost exclusively by air) of staff and material between the Goma office and field sites. Specific areas of activity include the following: - Health Systems Strengthening for improved health service delivery - Primary Healthcare Programs including water and sanitation projects - Emergency Preparedness and Response including support to national surveillance systems - Communicable disease control projects for HIV, TB, Malaria and neglected diseases - Construction and Rehabilitation of health facilities, schools and community health infrastructures Core Responsibilities General - To provide sound and sensible overall financial and expatriate HR requirement planning for the mission - To ensure compliance with all DRC national and regional regulation (e.g, tax, labour laws, etc.) - To participate as a member of the Country Management Team for DRC - To assist CD in all expatriate and national staff recruitment and management if required Operational Management - Lead the financial and HR inputs for new projects and extensions of projects in conjunction with the CMT and field sites teams - Ensure regular communications are maintained between the field sites, Merlin Goma, Merlin Kinshasa and Merlin London for all administratives, HR and financial issues - Maintain a strong working relationship with the Country Management Team: CD (Country Director), DCD (Deputy Country Director), Country Health Director (CHD), DCHD (Deputy Country Health Director), Logistic Coordinator and Finance Manager. - Ensure financial reports are completed in accordance with deadlines and undertake report editing where necessary. - Travel to the project in country as per the DRC mission needs. Financial Management - Ensure that proper financial procedures and systems are operated and maintained at individual sites. - Ensure compliance with the financial policies and guidelines of MERLIN. - Responsibility for all local accounting of all programmes - Set up, establish and monitor internal controls at all Merlin sites - Ensure compliance with the financial and other requirements of donors. - Co-ordinate and maintain a cash forecasting system to ensure that adequate funds are available to meet the working requirements of the programmes - Provide London with all necessary financial information. - Monitor ongoing levels of expenditure on individual programmes as against budget, and provide timely advice of likely over or under-spends. - Responsible for the preparation of budgets, amendments and forecasts working with the Country Director and others. - Reconcile QuickBooks ledger entries to the Budget Versus Actual, working in co-ordination with the Operations Finance Officer in London. - Prepare donor financial reports in line with donor reporting requirements (London to provide field with all necessary London based information). It is expected that the Senior Finance and Administration Manager will provide the majority of the input and preparation to this process and also sign off the report before final submission. - Ensure respective project coordinators understand variance implications. - Generally keep under review the financial and reporting systems. - Provide support and advice to the individual project sites. - Work closely with Field Administrators and Logisticians and provide supervision and support as required - Conduct internal audits for the field sites every three months, to ensure that all financial and administrative procedures are carried out in line with Merlin Guidelines and local Legislation. - Provide support, training and advice to the individual programme sites. Human Resource Management - Personnel management - ensuring that national staff personnel issues/needs are met according to local labour law and Merlin policy, including keeping up to date records of all staff, contracts, holidays, etc - Develop a national HR staff policy, so that counter position are integrated and a fair and sound system is use for internal national staff promotion and advise relevant coordinator in identifying potential counter part staff. - Line manage all relevant Financial and Administrative personnel - Through supervision and training, enable key national staff to take on a greater role in the management of finance and administration throughout the programme - Supervising the administrative needs of the expatriate staff including flight bookings, obtaining legal documentation, leave allocation, COLA payment, etc. - Implementation of the Merlin policy on personnel administration (staff regulations) Administration - Assessment and liaison with local legal advisors when necessary - Overall supervision of the contact with government agencies ensuring that all legal requirements are met, e.g. obtain vehicle registration, work permits, import licences etc - Inter agency liaison. Continuation of process initiated reco-ordination of meetings with INGO administrators as required by the Country Director. - Ensure that the employment contracts and job descriptions of the national staff are reviewed and updated when necessary - Ensure that all support staff are appraised every six months - Adherence to Merlin security policies - Ensure that the communication flow to London is maintained - Draw up guidelines as necessary to assist with the standardisation of working procedures, practices Security - Ensure financial field site security guidelines are reviewed at least quarterly - Ensure compliance with Merlin procedure towards security financial management is maintained in all sites Representation - When required by the CD, represent Merlin to donors, local and national health authorities, other NGOs, and any other parties as required. Other - Provide coverage for other posts when needed and carry out any other responsibilities as requested by the Country Director.
• Applicant Requirements:
  Person Specification Essential - Professional Accountancy Qualification - Fluency in French & excellent spoken and written English - In depth knowledge and experience of financial systems, financial/administrative management and reporting - Significant previous overseas INGO experience - IT Literate including EXCEL - Book-keeping skills, and the inclination and ability to analyse financial information - Capacity building/training of personnel - Proven extensive administration skills including human resource management - Experience of administrative and office related skills - Experience of implementing financial control systems at field level - Strong leadership skills - Experience of donor reporting requirements (ideally ECHO and USAID) - Strong and diplomatic negotiation skills - Willingness to work in an insecure environment - Focussed individual with capacity to plan and manage and multiple deadlines working environment - Flexible attitude to changing priorities - Capacity to think ahead and highlight areas of concern, risk etc - Ability to work under stressful conditions in an isolated area with basic living conditions - Good team-worker and able to live and work closely with various teams - Ability and willingness to undertake frequent travel to field sites Desirable - Previous experience of working in East/Central Africa, particularly the Great Lakes region - Experience of field financial management - Experience in the health sector
• Application instructions:
  To apply for this vacancy Please download an application form from our website www.merlin.org.uk. Completed applications should be emailed to applications@merlin-uk.org stating in the subject field the job title, country and reference number (if any) of the vacancy you have applied for.
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Dev-Zone Opportunity ID No. 10342     Hits: 16