Senior Finance Analyst

The Rural Renewable Energy Project (RREP) is a first of its kind in scale and scope in Sierra Leone and regionally in Sub-Saharan Africa, implemented by the Ministry of Energy with support from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and grant funded by DFID. The project will contribute to Sierra Leone’s economic development through increased access to electricity in rural areas while simultaneously reducing Sierra Leone’s future Green House Gas emissions.

This project aims to establish an enabling environment in Sierra Leone for a private sector driven rural mini-grid market and to provide up to 5MW of sustainable renewable power in rural community households, priority institutions, such as Community Health Centers (CHCs), schools, agricultural business centers and other productive uses, as well as chiefdom administrative offices, through solar mini-grids, based on a Public-Private Partnership approach. It is estimated that the RREP will connect approximately 360,000 direct beneficiaries in rural Sierra Leone to electricity, with a further 500,000 indirectly benefiting from access to low carbon electricity.

1. Implementation of operational strategies and procedures
2. Budget Preparation and Management
3. Cash Management and Treasury
4. Control of Accounts and Payments
5. Team Management
6. Knowledge Building and Sharing

1. Ensures administration and implementation of operational strategies, adapts processes and procedures focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Full compliance with UN/UNOPS rules, regulations, and policies of financial activities, financial recording/reporting system and follow-up on audit recommendations; implementation of effective internal controls, proper functioning of a client-oriented financial resources management system.
• Implementation of cost sharing and trust fund agreements, elaboration of conditions of contributions within the office’s resource mobilisation efforts.
• Implementation of cost saving and reduction strategies in consultations with office management

• Coordination of the preparation of the field operating budget; review of budget submissions, regular analysis and reporting on the budget approvals and the delivery situation; monitoring of expenditures against budget allotments and reporting on variances.
• Identification of administrative budgetary requirements; provision of guidance on guidelines for budget preparation.
• Review and update of guidelines, procedures in light of changing circumstances or for the purpose of complying, streamlining and/or strengthening of existing financial and budgetary procedures
• Review, analysis and revision of data with respect to the finalization of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements submitted by project managers; review of budget proposals for reasonableness, consistency with the organizational goals and priorities.
• Monitoring of budget implementation, expenditure levels against allotments and determination/recommendation of reallocation of funds when necessary
• Status of budgetary allocations monitored on an ongoing basis; networking with clients to strengthen budget management and take corrective actions when required.  Provision of information to supervisors and other UNOPS colleagues at HQ on the results of the investigation when satisfactory answers are not obtained.
• Collaboration in the improvement of the UNOPS Project Budget formulation system, with the cooperation of the Information Technology, ensuring relevance of system at all times by updating and proposing change to facilitate financial management of project and enhance financial reporting.
• Review and appropriate recommendations with respect to the finalization of budget performance reports, analyzing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures.

• Organization and oversight of cash management processes, including liquidity management, recommendation of imprest level, risk assessment, bank relationship management, timely accounting and reconciliation of all transactions, security for cash assets on site.
• Timely review of cash position for local accounts to ensure sufficient funds on hand for disbursements; identification and recording of receipts for income application.
• Establishment of efficient local banking arrangements and compliance with local financial and banking regulations
• Building of project capacity to effect payments using ERP/OneUNOPS and/or Imprest Accounts.
• Monitoring of the delivery and income of the Fund
• Discussion and communication with the project support colleagues on the savings or potential concerns that may require further review.

• Analysis and elaboration of proposals for the internal expenditures’ control system which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in ERP; payrolls are duly prepared; travel claims and other entitlements are duly processed.
• Quality control of the account by performing ongoing review, analysis and reconciliation of accounts. Investigation of discrepancies and initiation of timely corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers. Timely response to HQ requests to resolve financial data issues.
• Control of the Accounts Receivables for UNOPS projects and follow up with partners on contributions, maintenance of the General Ledger.
• Ensuring proper maintenance of the field financial accounts; preparation of financial records, statements and reports as required or approval of the work of subordinates; coordination of field replies to internal and external audit queries;
• Ensuring proper receipt, management, safeguarding and disbursement of payments handled by the field; review, modification, initiation and implementation of internal control procedures in coordination with Headquarters;
• Proper control of the supporting documents for payments; preparation of all types of vouchers; Pay Cycle and payments execution;
• Preparation of timely financial reports for submission to the funding agency in accordance with UNOPS rules, and in line with the established procedures;
• Monitoring of financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions and investigation of anomalies or unusual transactions;
• Ensuring proper maintenance of the Accounts Receivables for UNOPS projects and follow-up with partners on contributions, deposits creation in ERP and their application to AR pending items.

• Organize, facilitate and/or deliver training and learning initiatives for personnel on Finance related topics.
• Contribute to Financial management knowledge networks and communities of practice by providing collaborative synthesis of lessons learnt and dissemination of best practices in financial management.
• Collect feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices and utilize productively.

     6.     Team Management

• Facilitate the engagement and provision of high quality results and services of the team supervised through effective performance management, coaching, and promotion of learning and development.
• Provide oversight, ensuring compliance by team members with existing policies and best 

• CPA or Advanced Degree or equivalent in Business Management, Business Administration, Finance, Accounting  or related fields is required. 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Business Administration, Finance, Accounting  or other relevant discipline with additional two (2) years may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degrees degree.

• For internal candidates, a first-level university degree, in combination with over three years’ qualifying experience, may be accepted in lieu of the Advanced University Degrees;

• Technical/professional Diploma, in relevant discipline, in combination of additional four (4) years of experience maybe accepted in lieu of the Advance University Degree.

• Minimum of two (2) years of professional-level experience in accounting with responsibility for project accounting and preparation of financial statements in an international organization in providing financial management services is required.

• Knowledge of UNOPS financial rules and regulations; working knowledge of ERP (particularly Agresso), experience with MS Office 2003/or newer versions, and financial management, using electronic systems, environment and are desired.

Knowledge of another official UNOPS language is an asset

Contract type: Local Individual Contract Agreement (LICA)

Contract level: Local ICA Analyst 9 / ICS 9

Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.