Officer, Finance and Administration for American Red Cross

Organizational Context

Job Purpose

This position is expected to perform key tasks in the areas of financial management, he/she will provide support and guidance to the Country Representative with tasks related to treasury & accounting, banking, budgeting, procurements follow up and financial management to ensure full compliance with rules and regulations of financial processes, financial records and reports and audit follow up, as well as implementation of the effective internal control framework.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities:

The Finance and Administration Officer  will be responsible for:

• Employ financial oversight and control mechanisms and procedures to ensure that all program expenses are in accordance with American Red Cross financial policies, procedures and rules and regulations.
• Review and provide support for the financial aspects of contract execution of local implementing partner.
• Ensure the smooth implementation of project accounting activities, including (but not limited to): monitoring of expenditure levels against budget and funding obligations, financial projections and submission of financial reports

• Provide the management team with information and guidance on program financial performance.
• Regularly prepare and present financial reports, analysis, and recommendations concerning relevant financial issues.
• Review partner spending in relation to budgets,
• Verify accuracy and compliance of expenses and expense reporting;
• Other financial tasks assigned to you (accounting records, payroll review among others)

Tasks:

• Support finance management and reporting for the portfolio of projects assigned to the Country Operations, in close collaboration with the Regional Cluster Delegation and Operations’ personnel.
• Support the preparation and revision of budgets under the responsibility of the Unit for submission to Finance department and to Prepare working advances (WA) for National Societies for Finance validation.
• Support budget development for new proposals as needed.

• Processes all payments on a timely manner and ensure there are adequate supporting documentation, approvals or validations.
• Provide timely and accurate information and supporting documents related to the payments processed (receipts, debit notes, etc.)
• Ensure that the list of authorized signatures is accurate and updated as required.

Accounting

• Processes all accounting transactions on a timely manner (e.g. payment requests, working advances, clearances of working advances, supplier invoices, per diems, accruals, adjustments, expenditure reallocations, forecasts, payroll,WANS, etc.)
• Verifies that all transactions are properly supported with valid justifications.
• Provide support to issue accounts statements for the staff to get confirmation of balances
• Support to his/her finance counterpart in the National Society on the documentation of all the financial transactions related to the projects being implemented.
• Ensure that documentation that has been submitted properly
• Retrieve documentation on demand.
• Provide support to the auditors if necessary.
• Supports finance staff activities to ensure continuity of services.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

Closing of the Month

• Supports the Regional Finance Officer with the end of month closure routines according to the accounting checklist
• Support if necessary, during the preparation of the spreadsheet of outstanding work in advance of the National Society and staff to gather the correct financial codes and book the provisions and allocations against the appropriate codes.
• Monthly Balance reconciliations
• Follows up on any outstanding issue highlighted by Management and American Red Cross NHQ resulting from the past and current revision of period.

Administrative

• Preparation of requests for payment for payments from suppliers locally
• Track office inventory
• Support Country Representative on the purchase of supplies of materials as needed.
• Support Month End closed activities in general.

Education

A university or professional school degree in an accounting or finance related area

Experience

Required 

3+ years of professional experience in a finance or accounting department 

Preferred 

2+ years of field experience in a humanitarian organisation

Work experience with RC/RC 

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Self- supported in computing systems (e.g. accounting software package, MS Office programmes)
Excellent communication skills
Time management skills
Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks simultaneously;
A high degree of integrity, accountability, energy, and flexibility;
Good analytical skills and solution-oriented
Teamwork skills
Ability to communicate effectively, maintaining a two-way communication

LANGUAGES 

Fluently spoken and written Spanish
Fluently spoken and written English

Competencies, Values and Comments

VALUES: Respect for diversity, Integrity, Professionalism; Accountability.
CORE COMPETENCIES: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National Society and Customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust.