Finance Officer

Title: Finance Officer   

Location: Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Employment Category:  H2

Reporting To:  Base Manager

Start of Contract & Duration: May 31, 2023

Posting date: November 28, 2022

Required Employee: 1

Salary: USD 540.00 to USD 656.00 based on you work experience and educational qualification.

INTRODUCTION

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), has been providing relief and development services in the Horn of Africa since 1997. DRC promotes and supports solutions to the problems faced by refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and migrants. The organization has offices across the region and has been operational in Ethiopia since 2009.  With funding from bilateral and multilateral donors, DRC is currently implementing a range of activities across Ethiopia and Djibouti, including WASH and shelter provision, child and youth protection, gender-based violence response, awareness-raising of migration risks, protection monitoring of migration routes, and livelihoods support for returning migrants or those at-risk of migration.

OVERALL PURPOSE OF THE ROLE:

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has been providing relief and development services in the East Africa and Great Lakes since 1997. DRC has mainly focused on forced displacements. The regional Office is based in Nairobi, Kenya and have other offices and operations in EAGL.

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has been operational in Somali Region since December 2009 to assist the displacement affected Communities in in the Region. DRC had implemented so far humanitarian, recovery and development programs in Somali Region mainly with refugee, IDPs and affected host communities. To improve compliance and adhere DRC operations hand book mainly on Financial managements and also able provide proportional support to increasing programs in Dire Dawa, DRC is looking for to hire dedicated and experience Finance officer based in Dire Dawa with frequent field visit to the implementation sites in Sitti zones. The Finance officer under the supervision and in coordination with Finance Team Leader and Addis team will be doing finance related activities as per the JDs below. This position is responsible for carrying out all bank and cash transactions and booking of expenses for the Dire Dawa programme, managing expenditure and working with all teams to develop project budgets and monthly or weekly cash forecasts.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Accounts:

·   Ensure the monthly closing and cash follow status report is produced on time in electronic and hard copies to Head Office; get familiar with DRC dynamics mainly on finance section.

·   Maintain proper filing systems of financial documents, scan and burn on CDs those monthly financial reports to be forwarded to Addis;  

·   Maintain an electronic monthly cash book and perform daily and weekly cash reconciliation of the programme books;

·   Check expenditures against budgets, preparation of monthly expenditure statement and properly filing of financial documents;

·   Ensure that accounting records are kept updated, are reliable and are maintained according to DRC accounting practices;

·   Code transactions for the project floats and ensure it is in line with project budget lines;

·   Manage cash balances to ensure that sufficient balances are maintained for ongoing activities, while preventing too high balances to avoid incurring high exchange rate charges.

·   update monthly staff payroll for deduction for advances,  and keep track of clearing all outstanding;

·   Ensure timely and accurate encoding of all financial movements using DRC’s ERP or dynamics system;

·   Produce serially numbered cash receipt and cash payment vouchers, and code expenditures appropriately;

·   Support payment to service providers, suppliers and contractors and clearance of advance of procurement officer against a “Goods Received Note” signed by supply chain Officer

·   Prepare and distribute monthly expenditures reports on project and programme level in support of managers and programme staff

·   Ensure that all documents relating to financial transactions and donor contracts are properly filed in order to facilitate their retrieval and to safeguard DRC financial interest

·   Facilitate smooth internal and external audits of donor contracts

Procurement and assets tracking

·   Support adherence to DRC procurement regulation

·   Assist in tendering process and bidding analysis to facilitate procurement of goods, contracts and services

·   Assist management in produce annual procurement plans – revised on a quarterly basis – for new asset and equipment acquisitions

·   Support updated records of assets and equipment, disaggregated per individual donor contract.

Budgeting

·   Assist field management and programme staff in preparing annual programme budgets based on quarterly and annual expenditure reviews

·   Support coordination and preparation of bi-Monthly cash requests in coordination with relevant programme staff, forwarding it to Country Finance Officer in a timely manner

·   Assist finance team Leader and programme staff in budgeting, monitoring and financial reporting for specific activities or sub projects

·   Report immediately on all cases of financial mismanagement, such as theft, corruption or non-adherence to DRC financial management rules; and, if necessary, coordinate with AA in developing new policies to safeguard against future mismanagement

·   Support the production of timely and accurate encoding of all financial movements and the preparation of monthly budget monitoring reports

·   Coordinate and monitor monthly financial reports at field office and compile with TL for reports;

·   Train new finance staff like assistant and cashier in the DRC Finance System and Regulations and advise on their performance to ensure sound accounting and procurement practices and that DRC’s financial regulations are always strictly adhered to

·   Undertake regular visits to sites and advise and mentor field staff on project accounts and procedures

·   Support annual performance reviews of Finance Staff with Team Leader and assist in identifying their training needs

·   Assist Finance team Leader in preparing financial reports for donors or checking reports prepared by the Finance department in Head Office on the agreed reporting date

Other

·   Any other job as assigned by the Base Manager and finance team Leader or Area Manager in DRC Jijiga and Addis Finance team.

All DRC roles require the post-holder to master

DRC’s core competencies:

·       Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.  

·       Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.  

·       Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.  

·       Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

·       Demonstrating integrity: You act in line with our vision and values.  

Experience and technical competencies: (include years of experience)

• Proven ability to priorities tasks and meet deadlines
• Stable and robust character and a good team-player
• Experience in working in NGOs, at Least three years (3 Years)
• Excellent communication skills, calm and a good sense of humor
• Proven commitment to accountable practices.,     
• Strong sense of personal integrity
• Competent use of PC especially spreadsheets.
• Full proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Word and Excel.

EDUCATION: (include certificates, licenses, etc.)

Relevant education (degree or Diploma) and work experience in financial/accounting field.

LANGUAGE: (Indicate fluency level)