Finance Assistant

Founded in 1964 by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam and located in Trieste (Italy), the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) seeks to accomplish its mandate by providing scientists from developing countries with the continuing education and skills that they need to enjoy long and productive careers. ICTP has been a major force in stemming the scientific brain drain from the developing world. For more than 50 years, ICTP has been a driving force behind global efforts to advance scientific expertise in the developing world.

Under the overall authority of the Director, ICTP, direct supervision of the Head of the Financial and Budget Unit or Senior Coordinator of the Programmes and Advancement of the Conference Support Services Unit, the incumbents will verify and process entitlements of fellows and visitors of the ICTP programmes and activities, perform tasks related to the verification of entitlements based on the ICTP internal procedures and UNESCO rules, provide logistical support necessary for acquisition of pre-paid tickets, prepare payment orders and maintain relevant electronic records.

The incumbents will also help reviewing agreements for activities that are performed in collaboration with external scientific organizations within their region/country and verify that the requests are in line with rules, best practices and reasonable costs.

More specifically, the incumbents will:

General accountability:

• Act as certifying officer up to the authorized level delegated by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Draft and prepare routine correspondence, memoranda and non-substantive reports.
• Maintain confidential and general files and establish reference systems.
• Assist in the preparation of budgetary and financial reports, statistics or projections for managers’ use.
• Review draft reports, verify overall accuracy and consistency, cross-check consistency of figures.
• Provide guidance and interpretation on standard administrative rules, regulations and procedures.

Finance Accountability:

• Assist and inform the supervisor on financial status by using management information systems and reporting.
• Code, record and reconcile accounting transactions.
• Prepare and process requests for payment and post the relevant accounting record, ensuring compliance with all applicable UNESCO/ ICTP financial regulations and procedures.
• Maintain specific accounts, calculate and compile financial data, prepare routine reports.
• Generate expenditure reports from automated systems.
• Provide assistance and guidance to staff on basic financial procedures, requirements related to payments, and on banking and currency provisions.

Visitor Services Accountability:

• Perform verification and validation of entitlements, claims and supporting documents of visitors and research fellows based on the ICTP internal procedures and UNESCO rules.
• Make necessary arrangements for acquisition of pre-paid tickets and other means of transport.
• Provide relevant forms to visitor and fellows.
• Maintain electronic and hard copy records and periodically monitor the open cases.

Outside and External Activities Accountability:

• Support the review of agreements for outside activities and assistance provided by the External Activities Unit to ensure compliance with ICTP’s internal procedures and UNESCO rules.
• Verify all reports received from external organizations for completeness, presence of necessary supporting documentation and compliance with the reporting requirements.
• Identify any anomalies and errors; alert the supervisor and undertake transactions to correct errors/omissions.
• Contact and follow up with the UNESCO Field Offices (FO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Offices in case that payments have to be performed through them.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• Completed secondary, technical and/or vocational school.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of five years of experience in Finance, Accounting, Budget or related field.
• Good knowledge of accounting and finance procedures.
• Experience with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems (preferably SAP-based).

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

• Excellent Analytical skills
• Ability to work quickly and efficiently under pressure.
• High level of reliability with a responsive and service-minded attitude and behaviour.
• Ability to prioritize, plan and organize own work in order to respect deadlines.
• Good cooperation skills and ability to work in team.

LANGUAGE

• Excellent knowledge of English and good working knowledge of Italian.

Source: https://careers.unesco.org/job/Trieste-Finance-Assistant/790619202/