Job Vacancy: Project/Grant Accountant – (Nigerian Nationals Only)

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Job Vacancy: Job title: Project/Grant Accountant – (Nigerian Nationals Only)

Job description: Company description Catholic Relief Services – Agence Humanitaire Internationale Officielle de la Communauté Catholique aux États-Unis. Agricultural Livelihoods,…

Job Ad & Profile Description

Position : Project/Grant Accountant – (Nigerian Nationals Only)

Job Description

About CRS

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Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Project Background

Nigeria’s north-western State of Sokoto is increasingly facing a serious and complex humanitarian crisis of violent conflicts resulting from acts of bandits, natural disasters, and farmers-herders clash. This has led to a lack of protection for the population, combined with elevated levels of chronic poverty due to the displaced population. The persistent insecurity and structural deficiencies in the area continue to exacerbate the humanitarian needs.

In Sokoto, 74,341 persons are projected to be in Phase 3 of food and nutrition insecurity, 89% of the households (HHs) across this region have not received assistance, despite households having multi-sectoral humanitarian needs. The CRS needs assessment revealed that 20% of under-5 children in Wurno and Wamako LGAs have moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and a huge number of face multiple hindrances in practicing complementary feeding.

In this emergency context, IDP households are among the worst affected populations as displacement has resulted in the loss and destruction of key assets and the interruption of livelihoods. As per CRS’ needs assessments, these communities are in immediate need of food and nutrition support to save lives and restore dignity.

In order to effectively respond to the crisis, CRS Sokoto emergency programs are focused on food security, nutrition gender and protection , for both IDPs and host families. Where possible, CRS will seek to maximize project impact, efficiency, and effectiveness by adopting market-based approaches – through e-vouchers and the Red Rose One System platform – privileging integrated programming and empowering targeted communities through participatory approaches.

Job Summary

The Project Accountant, under the direct supervision of the Program Manager, will coordinate and contribute to the implementation of the LDSC-funded project’s policies and procedures in compliance with CRS’ established accounting standards, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), donors’ rules and regulations, and legal requirements to support high-quality programs serving the poor and vulnerable. The Project Accountant will perform sub-awardee/partner risk assessment and capacity building visits and manage partner financial management related to the project(s).

Roles And Key Responsibilities

Grants management and compliance

• Serve as the point of contact for emergency grant management and compliance issues with sub-grantees
• Support timely agreement/contract development/review/approval, both at the level of CRS and partners, ensuring adherence to both internal CRS and donor requirements.
• Set and monitor sound accounting and financial reporting procedures for project’s subrecipients and partners following established standards. Ensure setup and maintenance of all data required for processing financial transactions for assigned project accounts in the CRS financial management system.
• Review and validate supporting documentation before processing of financial transactions to ensure all required documents are accurate and complete and authorizations are in place.
• Record financial transactions following appropriate authorizations. Review and analyze various accounts to detect irregularities. Advise on corrective actions and prepare correcting entries and adjustments, as necessary.
• Assess, evaluate and monitor subrecipient financial management processes in accordance with policy and strengthen capacity of partner in financial accounting and transactions.
• Monitor disbursement/receipt schedules, alert relevant project staff of due payments/liquidations, and maintain appropriate communication and follow-up to facilitate timeliness of financial resource management and compliance with set deadlines.
• Prepare various periodic and ad hoc financial reports and perform variance analysis to assist project staff with decision-making. Assist with budget maintenance for proper management of financial resources.
• Provide information to project staff, subrecipients, and partners on financial accounting policies and procedural compliance issues and deliver training and other capacity building activities.
• Perform assigned treasury project (cash payment/receipt, cash forecast, etc.) duties, as long as segregation of duties is ensured.

Subrecipients’ financial management and Capacity Building

• Build and strengthen the capacity of subrecipients in the area of financial management. Plan and organize regular trainings and other capacity building initiatives such as exchange visits to ensure that subrecipients acquire and maintain the skills required to manage financial resources provided by CRS and other donors.
• Assess and regularly monitor subrecipients’ ability to safeguard financial resources entrusted to them. In addition, assess and monitor their ability to accurately record and post all financial transactions.
• Work closely with subrecipients to ensure that they design and implement effective internal control improvement plans.
• Maintain good working relationships with subrecipients based on mutual respect and effective communication and work closely with the Emergency Coordinator, Program Managers and Finance Leadership to ensure coordinated and consistent partners strengthening efforts.
• Ensure subrecipient advances and liquidations are managed in accordance with the Subrecipient Financial Management Policy and the terms of the related subrecipient agreements.
• Through formal training, on the job support and monitoring, build the capacity of CRS and partner staff in grants/contract compliance.
• Conduct staff orientation in donor and CRS financial management policies, procedures and standards in collaboration and coordination with the Deputy Head of Finance and Grants.

Grant Management

• Monitor grant agreements to ensure spending is within obligated budgets and the approved project periods; communicate with the CP Finance leadership when new agreements are signed, or existing agreements are modified.
• Lead the ongoing financial management of the Emergency grant portfolio through timely communication with the Emergency Coordinator, program managers, to ensure budgets are not overspent or significantly under-spent.
• Approve local partner budget updates and liquidation reports for the CRS finance team to process.
• Ensure partner liquidation includes sufficient documentation to justify expenses.
• Verify estimates of partner cash needs and in collaboration and coordination with Program/Project Managers, develop quarterly cash forecast to ensure sufficient cash flow and timely disbursement to support activity implementation.
• Ensure that partners keep supporting documents for all financial transactions and ledgers for Fixed Assets, Purchase Requisitions, Cash Receipts and Disbursement.
• In coordination with the Deputy Head of Finance and Grants Management, support the development and review of budget for new proposals and ensure accuracy of direct and allocated direct charges;

Required profile for job ad : Project/Grant Accountant – (Nigerian Nationals Only)

Required Languages

• English is required

Travel

• Must be willing and able to travel up to 20%.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Excellent analytical skills with ability to detect and report inconsistencies
• Conscientious, accurate and thorough with great attention to detail
• Ethical conduct in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions oriented and results-oriented
• Ability to work collaboratively

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of the relevant public donor regulations preferred.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications.
• Knowledge of SunSystems financial accounting package or similar financial reporting software preferred.

Job criteria for job ad : Project/Grant Accountant – (Nigerian Nationals Only) Job category :

HR, training

Industries :

Social, public and human services

Employment type :

Permanent contract – Fixed-term contract

Region :

Location: Nigeria

Job date: Sat, 17 Jun 2023 22:24:28 GMT

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