Financial Controller Malawi

Job Title: Finance Controller

Reporting To: Country Director, with a dotted line to the GOAL HQ finance department

Job Location: Blantyre, Malawi, with occasional travel to Lilongwe and field sites (approx. 10%)

Contract: 24 months

Description of the Role:

Reporting to the Country Director, the Finance Controller (FC) is in charge of GOAL Malawi’s finance department, responsible for ensuring all activities are coordinated, carried out correctly, and completed on schedule. The FC directly line manages two Finance Managers (accounting and Donor reporting) and is expected to provide leadership and broader capacity building to the finance team as a whole. As a key member of the senior management team, the FC is expected to contribute to the overall development and running of the Country Programme.

Key Duties:

Financial Management:

• Ensure proper financial systems are in place and implemented in line with GOAL’s finance manual across all GOAL Malawi offices;
• Responsible for cash management, cash flow, funds transfer from Dublin and liaison with banks;
• Oversee the timely preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual management accounts for submission to GOAL Head Office, Dublin;
• Preparation, consolidation and monitoring GOAL Malawi’s annual and rolling budgets
• Monitor and ensure all spending is in line with agreed budgets, highlighting as appropriate any under/over-spends and proposing required actions;
• Support Programmes staff to ensure accurate expenditure forecasting and budget monitoring;
• Ensure adequate supporting documentation is maintained for all transactions to meet audit requirements;
• Ensure all required internal controls are in place as required by GOAL policies and procedures and monitor operational effectiveness of controls on a periodic basis.

Donor reporting and compliance:

• Preparation of financial sections of donor proposals, budgets and reports, adhering to donor guidelines and strict deadlines;
• Monitor and ensure programme and administrative spending on donor budgets are in line with the agreed budget and within donor acceptable variances using the Budget Monitoring Tool (BMT);
• Support the country programme to ensure compliance with donor rules and guidelines.

Partner financial management:

• Review financial pre-award assessments of any new partners;
• Oversee review of monthly partner management accounts and ensure partner spend is in line with agreed activities and in adherence with GOAL and donor requirements;
• Manage payment process to partners;
• Ensure timely financial checks are performed on partners and action points raised are followed up and addressed

Risk Management:

• Work with CD and SMT to ensure that all financial risks are appropriately identified and managed.

Personnel:

• Line manage finance team in line with the provisions of the GOAL Malawi HR Handbook;
• Mentor and support the professional growth and development of all finance team members;
• Work with systems and programme department heads to identify finance related training needs for staff in other departments;
• Contribute to GOAL’s fraud prevention initiatives and support the ‘zero tolerance’ culture within the finance team and wider organisation.

Resource Mobilisation:

• Work in close collaboration with GOAL Malawi’s Country Director, Strategic Partnerships Coordinator, and Programmes team to engage in resource mobilization/business development activities as required. This will include the development of project budgets/financial proposals for new interventions.

Strategy:

• Actively participate in GOAL Malawi’s SMT;
• Contribute to all GOAL Malawi strategic planning processes;
• Facilitate and manage strategic programmatic shifts as and when defined and agreed by the GOAL Malawi SMT.

General

• Ensure that all GOAL and donor protocols are understood and complied with, including specifically policies on fraud, whistle-blowing and zero tolerance towards corruption;
• Routine internal reporting, including submission of weekly finance update to the Country Director.

The job duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the post holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Requirements for the position:

• A qualified accountant (Chartered, Certified or Management);
• At least ten (10) years’ post qualification experience, ideally with three (3) years at senior management level;
• Excellent written and spoken English;
• Outgoing personality with excellent interpersonal, motivational and management skills with experience mentoring team members;
• Excellent computer skills including proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Word and knowledge of Sage or a similar package;
• Ability to implement effective projects sometimes with limited resources;
• Good team player, flexible and capable of working with a multinational country team.
• Experience working in the NGO sector as a Financial Controller is preferable.

· GOAL has been working in southern Malawi since 2002. GOAL Malawi maintains its head office in Blantyre, a liaison presence in the capital, Lilongwe, and field offices in three districts in the southern region (Nsanje, Chikwawa, Machinga). GOAL’s mission is to promote resilient well-being by: helping people to survive crisis; promoting optimal and resilient health; promoting food and nutrition security; supporting people to have sustainable livelihoods.

General terms and conditions

A commitment to GOAL values and GOAL’s integrity framework is critical to working with GOAL. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a GOAL staff or partner.

Safeguarding

• Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with GOAL as a result of our activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated. Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date. We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.

Please apply through this link: https://www.goalglobal.org/careers/?vacancy=2061874