Finance Associate

Background Information – Job-specific

Located in Dakar, the UNOPS Senegal multi-country office covers all French-speaking countries in West and North Africa. Over the years, it has developed a strong working relationship with governments and international partners. It provides technical support in the areas of strategic development, including elections; procurement and related capacity building; environmental protection, as well as infrastructure rehabilitation and development. It includes a portfolio of more than 60 ongoing projects, half of which are dedicated to infrastructure projects, while the rest are transactional projects, procurement and support in funds, grants or project management.

Côte d’Ivoire

UNOPS, the United Nations Office for Project Services, acts as a key operational partner in humanitarian and sustainable development projects worldwide. In Côte d’Ivoire, UNOPS works with the Ministry of Health and its partners to provide infrastructure and renewable energy solutions in rural areas, in compliance with environmental and social standards.

Context of the Electrification Project in Ivory Coast 

As part of its support for Universal Health Coverage, UNOPS is partnering with the Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage (MSHPCMU) and the Health Nutrition Project Coordination Unit (UCP Santé Nutrition), supported by the World Bank, to strengthen access to energy in 166 health centers located in rural areas. The project aims to install solar energy systems in areas not covered by the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE) to improve access to care, particularly in remote areas.

Role of the UCP Health Nutrition World Bank 

• The UCP Santé Nutrition, supported by the World Bank, plays a central role as the local coordinator of the project. It ensures the direct link with the beneficiary communities and ensures that actions on the ground are aligned with national public health priorities. The UCP is involved in the selection of health center sites, in logistics planning and in monitoring the activities carried out by UNOPS and service providers, in order to guarantee the quality and relevance of the solar installations according to local needs.

Project Objectives 

This project is part of a strategic program aimed at:

• Improving the Resilience of Health Services in Rural Areas: Ensuring a stable and clean source of energy for health centers, enabling better quality of care.
• Strengthening local capacities: Through the UCP Santé Nutrition, ensure the training of local teams and maintenance committees for sustainable use of equipment.
• Contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals: In particular SDGs 3 (Good health and well-being), 7 (Affordable and clean energy), and 17 (Partnerships for the goals).

Functional Responsibilities

• Under the direct guidance and supervision of the Project Manager and the Finance Specialist, the Finance Assistant ensures efficient execution of financial services and processes and transparent use of financial resources. He/she promotes a client-centric approach in accordance with UNOPS financial rules and regulations.

Summary of Key Functions:

• Budget administration and cost recovery system
• Accounting. Payments, Payroll
• Office cash management
• Knowledge building and knowledge sharing

Budget administration and cost recovery system

Ensures the administration of budgets and the operation of the optimal cost recovery system with emphasis on achieving the following results:

• Preparation and modifications of project budgets,
• Presentation of information sought for planning and the status of the office’s financial resources
• Provision of inputs for the implementation of cost saving and reduction strategies in consultation with office management.
• Preparation of cost-sharing and trust fund agreements, monitoring of contributions as part of the office’s resource mobilization efforts

Accounting. Payments, Payroll  

Accounting, Payments, Payroll functions focused on achieving the following results:

• Proper control of supporting documents for payments and financial reports of projects; preparation of all types of vouchers; Payroll cycle and execution of payments.
• Correct receipt of goods, services and establishment of regularizations.
• Approval of suppliers in the enterprise system (if a senior member of the finance team).
• Global payroll processing in the Enterprise system.
• Maintenance of the internal expenditure control system that ensures that processed supporting documents are matched and completed; timely corrective action on unaccounted supporting documents, including those with budget verification errors, matching exceptions and unapproved supporting documents; transactions are properly recorded and accounted for; payrolls are properly prepared and processed; reimbursement requests, MPOs and other entitlements are properly processed
• Review of payment requests, including supporting documents, against the annual work plan.
• Closing accounts on time
• Prompt response to requests from headquarters to resolve financial data issues.
• Timely corrective actions on erroneous data in the business system. Preparation of financial reports as required.
• Maintenance of project customer accounts and monitoring of contributions with partners, creation of deposits in the Enterprise system and their application to pending positions.
• Timely reimbursements, government payment of fees
• Preparation of project vouchers.

For roaming positions outside of ERP systems:

Administer project advances, reconciliations and replenishments, subject to authorized approvals as follows:

• Liaise with program officials and conduct necessary project visits to obtain all certified documents proving completion of an activity, expenditure incurred and identity of the party/supplier;
• Verify and monitor the accuracy of declarations and compliance of the work plan to ensure the replenishment of seed funds
• Collect all certified supporting documents, signatures, names and other information of beneficiaries in the request/reimbursement receipts;
• Undertake the required recording of transactions
• Reconcile the balance of available funds with the balance indicated in the register;
• Where permitted, replenish funds upon receipt of relevant original documents and other evidence, and perform a reconciliation of figures, beneficiaries, work plan and budget;
• Ensure the settlement of the cash balance.

Office Cash Management

• Replace the Supervising Finance Associate/Senior Finance Associate to review the cash position of local accounts in a timely manner to ensure sufficient funds for disbursements. Timely identification and recording of receipts for revenue request.
• Replace the Supervising Finance Associate/Senior Finance Associate for the daily review of zero balance accounts bank statements in the corporate system to monitor the level of advances; identification and recording of contributions.
• Timely and accurate preparation of bank reconciliations.
• Replace the Supervising Financial Associate/Senior Financial Associate for the timely preparation of monthly cash flow forecasts for use by the Operations Manager/Financial Analyst. Liaise with clients to obtain an estimate of their cash flow requirements.
• Initiation of bank transfers and transactions in the Enterprise system.
• Creation of bank transfers (replenishment), processing of transactions and bank reconciliations.
• Implementation of operational advances after submission of the reconciliation and settlement of previous advances.

Development and sharing of knowledge

• Organize, facilitate and/or deliver training and learning initiatives for staff on finance-related topics.
• Provide robust contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice by synthesizing lessons learned and disseminating best practices in HR.
• Provide internal feedback, ideas and knowledge on processes and best practices and use them productively.
• As a key business user, provide financial management support in the financial management module of the enterprise system to internal customers.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

Training

• A high school diploma or equivalent is required.
• A university degree in finance and/or accounting and/or business administration, or an equivalent discipline is desirable but not required, and may replace part of the required years of experience.

Professional experience

• A minimum of 6 years of relevant professional experience in finance, accounting, business administration or a related field is required.
• Experience with MS Office/google suite and with financial management, use of electronic systems and environments is an asset.

Required languages:

• Fluency in written and spoken French is required.
• English proficiency is an asset
• Knowledge of another official UNOPS language is an asset.

Source: https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=29240