Finance Coordinator (Country Administrator)

COOPI at a glance:

In recent years, COOPI has made a major organizational change, with the organizational decentralization approved in 2019 as a key step.

The organization now has a Regional Coordination for each area of intervention (West Africa, Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean), the purpose of which is to bring decision-making closer to the field of intervention, as well as to give COOPI local accreditation and to better involve the beneficiaries in the choices. The headquarters in Milan is reconfirmed in the role of general direction, support and control of the overall work. Today it is divided into two units: the “General Activities” Unit and the “International Activities Development” Unit.

The “General Activities” staff includes the functions of General Secretariat, Administration and Finance, Institutional Representation, Institutional Communications, Human Resources, Security Advisor and Fundraising.

Three areas are included in the “International Activities Development” Unit: 1) Development and Knowledge, whose objectives are the nurturing and enhancement of COOPI’s know-how, in terms of content and operational practices, aimed at supporting the growth process and fostering the development of new initiatives; 2) Development and Management, whose tasks pertain to qualitative monitoring of projects, maintenance of control systems, and administrative compliance of projects to be submitted; 3) the Emergency Unit, whose purpose is to initiate and manage new emergency interventions on specific issues or areas.

The HQs staffs, in this logic, become on the one hand centers of competence and monitoring in support of the operational areas and on the other hand centers of high control, to guarantee the international donors and their processes.

The Finance Coordinator (Country Administrator) is responsible for supervision, management and quality implementation of all aspects of COOPI financial and administrative operations in country. The Administrator will also contribute at managing the relationship with the institutional partner and stakeholder with specific reference to the authorization requests and to the procurement. He/she will report functionally to the Regional Administrator and hierarchically to the Head of Mission. He/she will be based in Erbil with travels to Baghdad.

He/she ensures the correct administrative/financial management and the sustainability of the Country Coordination by preparing the coordination budget and by controlling the projects’ budgets preparation. He/she guarantees the information correctness and completeness to the headquarters. In particular, the fulfilment of the assignment involves the following activities:

• Planning and Coordination budget control: he/she prepares, in cooperation with the Head of Mission, and regularly verifies the trend of the general coordination and any area coordination’s budget. He/she monitors the sustainability of all coordination’s and field offices under the country coordination responsibility and verifies the correct distribution/distribution of fixed costs to the projects;
• Budget preparation and projects’ economic-financial control: he/she supervises the new project’s budgets in conformity with the programming and the Country Coordination/Regional Coordination/HQ sustainability;
• Goods management: he/she verifies the sustainability and correct management of all goods owned by COOPI, in collaboration with the country’s logistic function). He/she verifies the correct application of the organization’s procedures in relation to purchases and goods management.
• Financial management: he/she supervises and controls the cash management (safe and bank accounts) and the cash flow to the projects according to the requests; he/she is responsible for preparing and submitting monthly fund request to Regional coordination; he/she manages and supervises all funding by donors to the projects (advance and tranches reception), updating the information for transmission to the central Headquarters; In agreement with the Head of Mission he/she guarantees the correct timing of tranches reception; In agreement with the central headquarters’ Administrative Desk, he/she proposes the priorities for the financial reports submission schedule to the Head of Mission. He/she ensures the correct management and the general coordination/field offices cash control and related costs; He/she has the right to signature on all the organization’s bank accounts.
• Projects’ economic-financial monitoring: in collaboration with the Project Managers and Head of Mission/Regional Coordinators, he/she regularly checks the economic-financial performance of projects: final balance, expenditure excess, expenditure projections, and financial forecast.
• Financial reporting and audit: he/she finalizes and controls all intermediate and final financial reports to be transmitted to the donors, before transmitting them to the headquarters; he/she is responsible for the correct financial reporting and ensuring the correct filing of all projects’ data; he/she is responsible for the preparation and execution of audits conducted in the country, and for the transmission to the headquarters of all project documents to be audited in Italy; he/she is responsible for the preparation of annual audits for headquarters and local authorities;
• Local staff management and local and expatriate staff administration: He manages and supervises the administrators/local accountants; he/she ensures the training for all the staff involved in the administrative process (ex. Logisticians, Project Managers, administrative and finance team); he/she supports the Head of Mission in the elaboration of local staff management standards (local staff regulation) and guarantees the correct management of all documents related to staff management; he/she coordinates and supervises overall human resources policy implementation, included Labour Law application, recruitment and that staff salaries are effectively paid to eligible staff and an audit trail of records is maintained;
• Liaison with local authorities: he/she ensures that all administrative and financial procedures in relation with local authorities are timely and properly executed, from the visas of the staff to the registration and financial reporting processes.
• Supervise preparation of contracts with suppliers and any other contract issued by the coordination office. Ensure that contractual commitments are accurately tracked;
• Provide assistance to project managers and logistics team in procurement process and ensure that all procurements are done according to COOPI and Donor Procedures Ensure budget availability of expenditures and that appropriate authorizations are in place;
• Regularly update COOPI financial monitoring tools on coordination level and support project managers during monthly financial update and budget forecasts;
• Support the Head of Mission and Project Managers in budget preparation as well as proposals development;

Any other reasonable task required by the Head of Mission and by the Regional Administrator, in relation to the needs of the projects and of the mission.

What we Offer:

Gross salary: $2,000 USD.
Severance compensation in accordance with Iraqi labour law.
Health insurance for individual.
Starting date: As soon as possible

Essential

• Master degree in Economics, Finance, Accounting, Administration or similar subjects
• A minimum of three years of relevant work experience at the same position;
• Good knowledge of the main administrative rules and procurement procedures of donors (ECHO, EU, UN, AICS);
• Experience in logistics, procurement and security;
• Experience in liaising with government/local authorities and NGOs;
• Ability to understand donors’ administrative policies;
• Excellent knowledge of the English language;
• Budget planning and management.

Soft skills

• Ability to organize work efficiently and deliver assignments in a timely manner, often with time constraints;
• Proven ability to work in a team;
• Strong analytical and practical problem solving skills;
• Management of institutional relations and understanding of the cultural context;
• Strong supervisory skills and demonstrated ability for teamwork and coordination with stakeholders;
• Demonstrated effective verbal and written communication, negotiation and multi-tasking;
• Demonstrated ability to work in stressful and pressured environments;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Computer literacy, with high proficiency in the use of standard office software applications.

Others

• Experience in organizing and supervising a complex team;
• Knowledge of the Italian language;
• Knowledge of COOPI procedures.