CST Ethiopia represents the overseas development and humanitarian agencies of the Catholic Church from England and Wales (CAFOD), Scotland (SCIAF), and Ireland (Trócaire) in Ethiopia. The three agencies have over 40 years’ of experience in international development and humanitarian response and are each members of worldwide networks, including Caritas Internationalis. Currently, the three agencies jointly operate a single, integrated country programme in Ethiopia through the legal entity CST Ethiopia. CST Ethiopia works in partnership with local church and non-church organisations, supporting communities in Addis Ababa, Afar, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray regions. 

Scope of Role 

This position will be based in CST-Ethiopia Country Office in Addis Ababa. CST-Ethiopia Finance unit consists of three staff: Head of Finance and Compliance (HoF&C), Financial Accountant, Finance and Admin Officer-Mekelle. In addition to this the Programme Accountants (PA) support the Program and finance unit in Program finances.

The position holder will be key member of a multi-cultural finance team, the Finance Compliance officer/Coordinator ensure budgetary coherence, financial accounting, financial reporting and accountability across CST Ethiopia all partnership programmes ensuring CST and donor’s requirements are meeting at all the times. The purpose of this role in CST Ethiopia is to provide the financial technical support to the finance team in compliance; assisting in financial management capacity assessments and capacity building measures, accompanying and mentoring partners in their financial tasks, monitoring partners’ financial situation and assisting the HoFC in financial reporting requirements to IF donors as well as CST Ethiopia Headquarter. The position holder will be a part of the Finance and Admin team ensuring CST-Ethiopia’s partnership approach maintained while ensuring donor compliance and adherence to guidelines and policies.

For the candidate with the required qualification, experience and passion for the role, CST Ethiopia offers a competitive package of salary and benefits.

Duties and Responsibilities

To support programme and support staff to manage existing and future institutional funding grants/contracts in Ethiopia, with a particular focus on high quality reporting and internal and donor compliance.

Financial Management

• Streamline the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) methods in all IF donors budgets for office running costs (Office costs) of CST Ethiopia as well as all project and partners wherever is possible and practical.

• Streamline the consistent FX rates for all IF donors budgeting process and reporting purpose unless there is specific IF donors requirements and policy to use different FX rates for their budgeting and financial reporting.

• Ensure for each assigned grant the Cost recovery per charged periodically

• Responsible for the tracking of cost share expenses as required by the award and identify other areas for program cost share.

• Prepare and reconcile balance sheet schedules on monthly basis.

• Preparation of monthly Payroll

• Uploading the Batches on Agresso Financial software

• Prepare Bank Reconciliation on Agresso accounting software

• Before the grant closed, confirm all the outstanding payment, outstanding Advance, partner advance, NR- (Not related to grant) per the assigned grant were cleared before the grant is closed.

• Support HoF in annual audit and maintenance of audit report

Programme and Project Finances

• Ensure that all project partner organizations are maintaining their financial records in an acceptable standards, accurate and enough supporting documents are maintained as per CST Ethiopia and IF donors requirements.

• Ensure that CST Ethiopia expenditure in Agresso systems & partner expenditure are accurately recorded in their relevant formats and systems as per the approved IF donors budget

• Maintain a live repository of donor financial compliance requirements and ensure these are being met.

• Support HoF&C regarding financial compliance of Institutional funds

• Follow up on Institutional funds reconciliation process on an ongoing basis until consumption of all related funds.

• Ensures that all financial transactions of the project comply with donor financial policies and procedures for the relevant project.

• Receive the programme partner financial reports from all projects within the reporting deadlines.

• Support Programme Accountants (PAs) to carry out partners’ financial management systems reviews, support in designing the accounting and reporting systems, provide on- the-job training, provide other on-going financial guidance and any other required technical support to partners including forms and formats for accounting records.

• Support PA to prepare the partner financial reports that are in compliance to the grant terms and generally accepted reporting requirements.

• Work with BDU team for responding donor feedback on financial reports and negotiate/coordinate with IF donors to comply their rules and regulations and signed contracts.

CST Ethiopia internal & project end external audits and compliance

• Facilitate donor audits for each assigned grant per donor requirement including the TOR preparation and review.

• Follow up on resolving all arising audit issues/findings and ensure that all agreed audit findings, recommendations and management responses are implementing in a timely manner as per HoF&C advise

• Responsible for ensuring that the partners are complying with the CST-Ethiopia partnership agreement, IF donors rules and regulations and local legislations.

• Support any on-going project audit exercises and coordinate all participating partners to respond to audit requirements.

• Regularly update the project on partner reporting status, expenditure patterns and areas of financial and compliance risk to HoF&C and DCD.

• Assist HoF&C in partner risk assessment, risk ranking and profiling to identify and track areas of risk exposure to the project and designing measures to address identified risks.

• Carry out and assist in the investigations on the alleged financial fraud or financial irregularities involved in any partner organization in coordination with the relevant staff

 Partner organizations' financial management capacity building

• Support PA to identify key governance and financial management capacity gaps of partner organization through capacity assessment exercises

• Oversee implementation of partner financial management capacity building plan actions agreed with the project partners.

• Assist HoF&C in compliance visit to partner office.

• Conduct monitoring visits with partner and field offices, at least once per quarter focused on troubles shooting and supportive on the job-training.

• Maintains an up-to date list of donor regulations with the support of BDU that ensure compliance and disseminates the same to all program teams and partners as is relevant.

People Management (HR roles & responsibilities)

• Identifying the training and development needs of FA and FAO, prepare the training and development plan, discuss, agree with both and

• recommend to HoF and HR officer to include in the organisational staff training and development plan and budget based on the priority and needs of CST Ethiopia CST-Ethiopia.

• Assisting and facilitating to Financial Accountant (FA), Finance & Admin Officer (FAO) in setting up their annual objectives, providing regular constructive feedback to them based on their performance review findings to improve in the agreed on their deliverables and targets/goals.

Safeguarding Programme Participants-Children & Adults

Trócaire is committed to safeguarding people within our programmes from exploitation and abuse and has specific policies on this commitment (including a Global Code of Conduct) which outlines the expected behaviour and the responsibility of all staff, consultants and other organisational representatives. More information on Trócaire’s safeguarding policies available here.

Diversity and inclusion

We welcome diverse applicants to join our inclusive workforce.

Trócaire is an equal opportunities employer. We are an organisation that embraces diversity and inclusion. We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds to bring their experiences and perspectives to Trócaire.

Diversity and Inclusion statement available here.

Division: International

Team:  Finance & Admin

Travel Overseas: Required

Contract Duration: Fixed Term – 2 years

Job Requirements

Essential Requirements

Qualifications

• At least University Degree in Business Administration/B Commerce/ M Business Administration

Experience

• At least Seven (7) years’ work experience of financial management of I/NGO with at least 2 years in management position

• Experience of coaching, mentoring, staff capacity building and overall financial management of partnership programmes

• Grant management experience with local partner organisations (I/NGOs) funded by Institutional donors such as DFAs, UN, EU, EC, USAID Caritas and other IF donors

Skills

• Excellent communication and training/ capacity building skills.

• Proven organisation and planning skills.

• Excellent computer skills, particularly in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook )

• Accounting software, e-mail, internet & file and data backup systems.

• Grant management skills and knowledge.

• Ability to work well with others under strict deadline situations and respond to changes in priorities.

• Good written and verbal communication skills and strong

• organisational skills in English and Myanmar language.

• Ability to work independently, take initiative and set priorities.

• Employ problem-solving skills and analysis, and report problems to the line manager with possible options and solution.

Qualities

• Demonstrated ability to work with a participative style within teams.

• Ability to work on own initiative.

• A commitment to social justice and the ethics of CST-Ethiopia.

Other

• Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity.

• Empathy with CST-Ethiopia’s partnership approach and a commitment to partners’ capacity building.

• Flexible and adaptable to a changing environment.

• Strong interpersonal and teamwork skills.

How to Apply:

Interested and Qualified applicants can apply online by using THIS LINK