Act Change Transform
Act Change Transform (Act!) is a local Non-Governmental Organization whose mission is to facilitate the empowerment of marginalized people and communities in Kenya and neighboring countries, to become active participants in their development by enabling them to: stand up for their rights; demand good governance in the management of resources; and participate in decision making processes. Act! does this through implementing partners, offering them capacity development, management of grants so that value for money is achieved and providing strategic leadership in national advocacy for the benefit of women, youth, people with disabilities and other marginalized communities.
Job Summary
The Senior Finance Officer will be based in Nairobi and responsible for day to day Financial Management of the organization. S/he will ensure proper records and books are maintained for the Programme/s and prepare financial statements for the programme/s while maintaining efficient internal controls.
S/he will ensure effective functioning of the financial systems for efficient and timely delivery of services by the finance department internally (to staff & programs) and externally (to partners & Donors). This shall include monitoring Financial Management processes to ensure proper compliance with all statutory regulations, donor regulations and Act!’s financial policies and procedures.
The job holder may be expected to supervise to the finance team members within the Finance Office. S/he will closely liaise with the Auditor(s), Bank and other programme actors in ensuring timely services and compliance requirements of Act!
Key Responsibilities
Financial Management
- Prepare and get appropriate approvals for all invoices/reports to donors.
- Review and analysis of monthly programme management accounts and management reports as required by budget holders.
- Ensure that monthly analysis, interpretation and advice on variances against budgets are provided to the budget holders.
- In consultations with the Finance and Operations Manager, develop cash flow forecasts for the Organization for discussions with the SMT and the Board Committee on Finance and Audit.
- Tracking of overall Programme budget spending against budgets (pipeline monitoring), preparation of funds requests and follow with donors
- Ensuring financial practices that guarantee compliance with all donor and Act! policies and donor guidelines during program implementation and program close outs.
- Support the program teams with proposal development processes i.e. the budget components ensuring that overheads recoveries are in line with the policy on 100% cost recovery.
- Ensure Statutory, Tax and NGO Board compliances (tracking compliances on monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually). Includes maintaining the corresponding online portals as appropriate.
- Prepare of the year-end financial statements and statutory reports in readiness for annual audits and collaborating with the external auditors in ensuring smooth and seamless audits.
- Ensuring timely preparations, review and approval of bank reconciliation statements no later than the end of the 2nd week of the subsequent month.
- Other duties as assigned by the supervisor.
Monitoring and reporting (financial and programmatic)
- Tracking the periodic (monthly/Quarterly) grantee advances and liquidations.
- Monitor organizational expenditures and financial status and preparing monthly cash requirements for the organization.
- Ensuring finance staff involved in preparing payments do so in a manner that strictly meets set standards and finance guidelines (expenditures must be allowable, allocable and reasonable).
- Preparing high quality and accurate financial reports for review and approval by the finance and operations manager, which confirm to the annual budgets.
- Closely monitor obligations from donors and grant obligations.
- Monitoring any financial malpractices and to immediately establish mechanisms to plug any loopholes upon consultations with the Finance & Operations Manager.
Capacity building
- Participate in organizational capacity assessments and mentoring of selected Act! grantee partners.
- Regularly arrange in-house training activities for Programme staff on changes in regulations and donor standards.
Performance & Compliance Standards:
- Support the function in ensuring comprehensive, up to date and best practice policies and practices in finance.
- Keep well motivated support team.
- Support in ensuring full and timely compliance with all statutory, Act! and donor regulations.
- Timely completion and submission of all reports (SMT, Donors, Stakeholders, etc.).
Qualification, Experience and Skills:
Academic Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Accounting or related business field. A post graduate qualification is desirable.
Professional Qualifications
Certified Public Accountant of Kenya (CPA-K) or ACCA qualification.
Experience
- At least seven years’ experience in Finance in a similar position and environment.
- At least five years’ experience of financial accounting systems management (ideally using ACCPAC).
- Grants management in an NGO setting.
- Audit experience and exposure to audit processes.
- Experience in preparing annual financial statements.
- Experience in supervising a team.
Essential Skills and Key Competencies
- Excellent written and oral communication skills including report writing, negotiation and representation.
- Effective people management skills including the ability to establish good professional relationships.
- Highly computer literate, numerically minded and able to solve complex problems
- Highly organized and able to prioritize workloads and meet tight deadlines
- Thoroughness and attention to details.
- Problem solving and analytical skills.
- Ability to multi-task and follow through tasks to their logical conclusion.
Complexity and difficulty of the work
- A demanding job that requires tolerance and sector knowledge
How to apply
How to Apply:
If you meet the requirements as contained in the position description, please submit (1) a detailed and current CV; (2) an Application Cover Letter demonstrating why you qualify for the position indicating the current or the last gross salary and three referees including their most current contact details. All applications should be submitted electronically to [email protected] quoting the reference number (ACT/SFO/17/2022) and position on the e-mail subject line.
Deadline for applications submission is Monday 17th October, 2022, 12 Noon EAT
Act! is an equal opportunity employer with zero tolerance to corruption.