Finance And Budget Assistant

Org. Setting and Reporting

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. UNEP’s Ecosystems Division works with international and national partners, providing technical assistance and advisory services for the implementation of environmental policy, and strengthening the environmental management capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. This post is located in the Global Funds Finance Unit, Ecosystems Division, at the Nairobi duty station. Under the direct supervision of the Finance and Budget Officer, the incumbent will be responsible for the following functions:

Responsibilities

PROJECT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT:

• Verify documents for overall budgetary accuracy, consistency and uniformity in presentation and ensure comprehensiveness and compliance with formats prescribed; Cross-check consistency of figures in tables with the text of the reports, and verify references to other reports and documents, suggest corrections to be made to the Fund Management Officer (FMO) and Programme Manager concerned;
• Co-ordinate with other finance and programme staff in preparing budgets with respect to project documents;
• Liaise with Programme Management Team and UNON to obtain and review banking details forms, F.249 and required supporting information.
• Coordinate input of data in the Integrated, Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Tool to facilitate Results Based Management Reporting

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION:

• Prepare/review funding documents for budget allotments,
• Review expenditure reports from executing agencies to ensure:
• correct expenditure coding block has been charged;
• validity of charges;
• availability of funds;
• Prepare fund commitments in Umoja Extension 2, review and process cash advances, UNDP authorizations and fund transfers to Executing Agencies (EAs), ensuring that the advances are within the approved budget and approved by the FMO;
• Initiate processing of cash advances and expenditures through UMOJA and follow up with UNON for remittances of funds and approval of recorded expenditure reports and liquidation of issued advances.
• Assist FMO with regular review of UNDP Inter Office Vouchers (IOVs) to ensure that they have been properly recorded; – Review of UNOPS Expenditures and process payments and ensure recording of expenditure.
• Notify payees on status of payments and investigate complaints of non-receipt.
• Monitor expenditures to ensure they remain within authorized levels; prepares adjustments as necessary
• Analyse variances between approved budgets and expenditures and prepare requests for adjustments as necessary;
• Reviews requisitions for goods and services to ensure (a) correct objects of expenditure have been charged, and (b) availability of funds.
• Monitors integrity of various financial databases.
• Assist in preparation of annual project revisions and supporting schedules;
• Reconcile project accounts against independent audit certificates received from executing agencies.
• Review/prepare project structure and commitments in Umoja;
• Conduct project management training on use of various project reporting templates during the inception workshop.

PROJECT EVALUATION AND CLOSURE:

• Update project database with relevant project information on revision/closure of projects;
• Provide financial information required in Project Implementation Review (PIR), Mid-term review/evaluation and Terminal Evaluation;
• Assist in the preparation of project completion and closing revision and supporting schedules.
• Process disposal of non-expendable equipment in accordance with UNEP procedures before closure of projects.
• Prepare request for refund of unspent balances for approval by Fund Management Officer; Track receipt of expected income through Treasury deposit report and ensures credit is posted correctly to the proper Trust Fund.

GENERAL

• Provide general administrative support to Fund Management Programme Management Officers and other team members;
• Drafts or prepares correspondence to respond to enquiries in respect to relevant financial and budget matters • Provide guidance and training to colleagues and supervise other General Service staff as required;
• Archive documentation as required, Keep log of archived files and track of archived information.
• Track and follow-up on administrative processes in progress; Maintain and keep up-to-date project files
• Assists with the collection and analysis of data as well as preparation of data presentations and reports for information sharing, responding to queries, knowledge management, planning and decision making
• Assists with visualizations and updating information material such as web pages or brochures.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Education

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.
• Supplementary training in administration, finance or related field is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in finance, budget, accounting, administrative services or related area is required. The minimum years’ of relevant experience is reduced to five (5) for candidates who possess a first-level university degree or higher. Experience working with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as Systems, Applications and Products (SAP), e.g., UN Umoja, in grants management, funds management and financial management modules is required. Experience with Global funds such as Global Environment Facility (GEF), Adaptation Fund (AF) and/or Green Climate Fund (GCF) is required. Experience in an international organization such as the United Nations is desirable. One (1) year or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable. NOTE: “Fluency equals a rating of “fluent” in all four areas (read, write, speak, understand), and “knowledge of” equals a rating of “confident” in two of the four areas.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/241003?language=en