Administrative and Finance Officer

GIZ- Internal/External Vacancy Announcement #087/2020

Responsible Governance of Investments in Land (RGIL)

As an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, the federally owned Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supports the German Government in achieving its development-policy objectives.

In Ethiopia, GIZ has been working for more than 40 years in bilateral cooperation on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and on commission of the Ethiopian government and international donors. 

GIZ Ethiopia is looking to recruit an ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCE OFFICER to support the Responsible Governance of Investments in Land (RGIL) Project.

Responsibilities:

• General office administration according to GIZ internal regulations;
• Up to date bookkeeping and monitoring of expenses;
• Implementation and monitoring of an overall smooth and correct functioning of the complete accounting system of the project in line with GIZ procedures and principle;
• Financial planning, monitoring and accounting;
• Monitor daily office operations and expenditures;
• Prepares and organizes internal team meetings and attends external meetings whenever necessary;
• Lead the finance and administration work of the S2RAI/RGIL project;
• Manages Project procurement, logistic and provide support to staff;
• Carries out tasks according to GIZ regulations;
• Secures a smooth workflow providing all necessary work materials to team members;
• Effective coordination with colleagues at the country office, partner office and relevant officers in HQ;
• Ensures that the provided accounting services meets reporting deadlines;
• Effectively manages SAP for financial monitoring;
• Ensures the quality and appropriate filing of outgoing formal communication;
• Overseeing contracts incl. local Subsidies (LS) , grant agreement (GA) and Finance Agreements (FA);
• Follow-up contract/procurement status with the GIZ Country Office and Headquarters
  

Tasks:

Financial Services

• Carries out tasks according to GIZ regulations;
• Prepares financial reports regularly and upon request;
• assists with creditor and debtor administration, including local subsidies and agreements with national appraisers;
• prepares transfers and/or other bank documents and checks these before execution;
• make fund request in time;
• ensure every transaction is recorded in to the system on daily bases;
• Conduct surprise cash count, manage monthly cash count and get approval from the supervisor;
• makes monthly payments and foreign currency transactions and optimizes these;
• is responsible for administrative aspects of financial management, e.g. bank withdrawals, direct debit orders;
• checks unexpected entries in the cash book;
• prepares the monthly payroll for GIZ national personnel;
• is responsible for deducting taxes, social security and adjustment payments;
• monitors income, expenditure and the monthly bank reconciliation;
• manages the processing of letters of credit;
• monitors real accounts (payables, receivables) and reports regularly to the officer responsible for the contract and cooperation and the accounting manager;
• ensure the smooth functioning of the accounting system in line with the GIZ standard procedures;
• compile and submit complete financial documents to GIZ Office under the guidance and supervision of the project Coordinator;
• verifies correctness of vouchers, including supporting documents for payments and internal transaction vouchers;
• compile VAT documents and prepare claim summaries for GIZ Office and follow-up on the reimbursement;
• ensure that all payment vouchers, invoices, receipts are validated and approved before forwarding it for payment and booking;
• supervise the cashier/a officers in daily checking of payments against the cash/bank book entries;
• ensure timely payment of utility bills and withholding tax payments by checking the correctness;
• maintain proper fixed asset register, update inventory records and make annual physical count of the program;
• ensure that financial files are labeled and filed according to GIZ’s regulation;
• support and advise the program manager and National project coordinator in establishing an improved budget and expenditure; management system as well as regular monitoring of the budgets and expenditures;
• manages all audits and internal controls;

Administrative tasks

• provides required documents for an auditor whenever internal control is conducted and assists on follow-up of auditor’s findings;
• check bank reconciliations monthly and cash account reconciliations between WINPACCS, SAP cash book and actual physical cash count balances;
• monitors the daily cash flow records of the program office and the regional office, the level of liquidity and bank balances;
• arrange and follow-up bank transfers made to partner and stakeholders by following their project budgets and cash flow;
• support the Project Manager and National project coordinator in following up of settling advances on financial agreements (FA), LSC, GAs and consultancy agreements;
• Facilitation of workshop expenses, flight ticket booking, transport arrangements etc.;
• corresponds with the partner regional offices for timely submission of financial documents;
• deputize the admin when she/he is on leave;
• Keep and update annual leave records of the staff;
• ensure that the personal files of the employee are properly maintained;
• ensure that unused receipts and checks are kept in safe custody;
• report irregularities observed, if any, to the superior;
• Perform any other duties as required;
• Efficiently communicate and coordinates with financial, procurement and admin officers in GIZ HQ as well as GDCO for preparation of travel;
• prepares quarterly/annually analyses of expenditure compared to total project budget (budget monitoring);
• prepares financial contributions;
• assists with the transfer of funds to partners.
  

General Services

• guides and leads support staff and conduct yearly performance assessments and carrier development dialogues;
• maneuver effectively within GIZ intranet and uploads all relevant project documents within DMS;
• supports new project staff in getting familiar with the project, logistic arrangements and organizes all onboarding events;
• ensures that all equipment is maintained and documented properly;
• monitor and support the drivers in ensuring compliance with established policies and procedures of GIZ in the allocation and proper use of transport fleet;
• ensure that the access of the office equipment needed to support the business specifically a photocopier; printers; computers and fax machine;
• Ensure that the office equipment is managed and maintained as needed to provide required services;
  

Other duties/additional tasks

• photocopies and scans documents as needed;
• reports without delay to the persons responsible for office administration and accounting on all problems in financial administration and compliance;
• file administration and finance documents and keeping information confidentially;
• performs other duties and tasks at the request of management;

Qualifications

• University degree in relevant field of specialization and qualification in accounting or business administration (equivalent of BA);
• At least 5 years’ professional experience in a comparable position;
• Experience within GIZ is of advantage;
• Fluent command of the English and Amharic languages;
• Computer literacy (MS package and internet-based research);
• Ability to cope with stress and to organize/prioritize workload under tight deadlines;
• Disciplined and punctual;
• Resilient and Patient;
• Available for in-country duty travel to project sites;
• Experience with international organizations, government entities and NGOs are highly appreciated;

Other knowledge, additional competencies

• good working knowledge of ICT (related software, phone, fax, email, the internet) and computer applications (e.g. MS Office);
• very good knowledge of the English required, ideally also knowledge of German;
• in-depth understanding of financial planning and accounting;
• experience of management and administration;
• willingness to upskill as required by the tasks to be performed – corresponding measures are agreed with management;

Other duties and additional tasks

• performs other duties and tasks at the request of National Project Coordinator or Project Manager