Finance Senior Officer

Ensures finance, business, administration and implementation processes of the project are efficient and integrated to work together focusing on achievement of the following results: 

• Comply fully with UN/UNOPS rules, regulations, and policies of financial activities, financial  recording/reporting system and follow-up on audit recommendations; implementation of effective  internal controls, proper functioning of a client-oriented financial resources management system. 

• Identify and map out current business processes, including persons (subject-matter experts) and  steps involved. 

• Analyse and assist the project unit to develop tools to operationalize improved business process flows,  including an overall action plan. 

• Develop an amended grant operations manual, as appropriate, for managing the Global Fund’s  grants that is aligned with the Government of Sri Lanka’s regulatory framework on processes that  impact the Global Fund’s grants.

Accountability of Finance Management and finance procedural systems:

• Review the current financial management information system (FMIS) solution with a view to giving  recommendations as to if the current FMIS is fit for purpose. 

(The target FMIS should enable MOH to  efficiently manage multiple grants and government funding, as well as to provide a holistic view of the  financial situation of the organization.The system should be compliant with the applicable government accounting standards, meet the donor  accounting and reporting requirements and enable MOH to produce compliant reports in accordance  with its applicable accounting framework. In addition, it should provide a solid platform for future  development and growth).

HR Oversight of Finance Management personnel 

• Review the current Human Resources component in the Finance team of the PIU and other related finance departments pertaining to the project to ascertain if the team has staffing of the right caliber and of the right size to effectively perform its mandate.  

• Review the last version of or perform a grant implementer capacity assessment which will identify key  gaps in the PRs Financial Management Capacity and propose an action plan to address the same. 

• Support the project manager to implement the capacity building plan over a period of not more than six months. This could  include;

• Providing hands-on training support on financial and accounting procedures including best  practices for financial management as it relates to budgeting, accounting and reporting in various areas in meeting financial management requirements.

• Support staff effectively to enforce internal controls to ensure that all payments are eligible, justified  and adequately supported. 

• Support the PIU in the oversight management of their Sub-recipient (SR) and other sub-SRs as the  case may be;

• performing the financial review of the SRs,  

• monitoring and supervision of all SRs and implementer levels below that of SRs

Accounts and payments: Ensures and is accountable for the following: 

• Ensure  that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in ERP; travel claims and other entitlements are duly processed. 

• Provide quality control of the account by performing ongoing review, analysis and reconciliation of accounts.  Investigation of discrepancies and initiation of timely corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers. Timely response to  PIU and HIQI PM requests to resolve financial data issues. 

• Provide monitoring and control of the Accounts Receivables for UNOPS projects and follow up with partners on  contributions, maintenance of the General Ledger. 

• Ensuring proper maintenance of the financial accounts; preparation of financial records, statements  and reports as required or approval of the work of subordinates; coordination of field replies to internal  and external audit queries; 

• Ensuring proper receipt, management, safeguarding and disbursement of payments handled by the  field; review, modification, initiation and implementation of internal control procedures in coordination  with PM and PIU; 

• Proper control of the supporting documents for payments; preparation of all types of vouchers; Pay  Cycle and payments execution; 

• Preparation of timely financial reports for submission to the funding agency in accordance with  UNOPS rules, and in line with the established procedures; 

• Monitoring of financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions and investigation of  anomalies or unusual transactions;  

• Ensuring proper maintenance of the Accounts Receivables for UNOPS projects and follow-up with  partners on contributions

Financial Oversight of procurement and non procurement transactions 

• Support the PIU for the oversight management of all Financial transactions under the grant to ensure  that the transactions fulfill the following criteria;

• Proper authorization according to the PR approval authority matrix.

• Availability of complete documentation and coded for data entry. 

• Availability of clear evidence of value for money.

The methodology for the position will largely entail in-depth interviews of all persons involved in the business processes, systems and People Management (subject-matter experts) from the PR, SRs as key beneficiaries of services provided by PR, and any other relevant stakeholders. Engagement of SRs and other stakeholders has potential to provide insight into problems identified with the current processes. 

Activities to be undertaken include: 

• Desk review of Global Fund Policy documents, Global Fund grants (2022 – 2024), (Draft Customized) Operational Manual for Global Fund Grants in Sri Lanka, Programme Based Budgeting Manual, Financial Regulation 1992, Delegation of Financial Authority issued by the Secretary of Health, Digital Health Blueprint, procurement plan among other relevant documents.

• One-on-one interviews with GF grants implementation stakeholders, including the following: 

• Programme Accountants and relevant finance staff 

• Programme Directors and Coordinators/ Consultants 

• Programme Procurement Officer/ Assistant 

• Programme Human Resource Officer/ Assistant 

• Ministry of Health Chief Finance Officer and relevant Accountant – SR and SSR Accountants/ finance staff 

• Business process review (BPR) team meetings and workshops consisting of;

• Initial stakeholder meeting to define roadmap for BPR. 

• Workshop for subject-matter experts to determine the current processes and sub-processes; and identify gaps/ problems in relation to global best practices and benchmarks 

• Workshop for stakeholders and subject-matter experts to develop an overall business process improvement action plan, and specific tools -technical recommendations and Operation Manual for Global Fund Grants in Sri Lanka. 

• Managing UNOPS financial systems on the project, enure compliance and reporting guidelines are fulfilled

• CPA or Advanced Degree or equivalent in Business Management, Business Administration or related fields is required.  

•  For internal candidates, a first-level university degree, in  combination with over five years’ qualifying experience, may  be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience: 

• Minimum of five years of professional-level experience in  accounting with responsibility for project accounting and  preparation of financial statements in a government entity  and/or international organization in providing financial management services; 

• Knowledge of and/or experience in working with MoH and/or  Sri Lanka government sector financial procedures and  processes 

• Knowledge of financial rules and regulations;  working knowledge of ERP (particularly Agresso), experience with MS Office 2003/or newer versions, and financial management, using electronic systems, environment and are  desired.