Finance Senior Officer

Peace and Security Cluster

The UNOPS Peace and Security Centre (PSC) is a principal service provider in the field of mine action with the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), UNDP, UNICEF, governments of mine-affected countries and other mine action partners. The Centre is responsible for providing support and oversight of the day-to-day management of project field offices, both according to the client requirements and in line with UNOPS rules and regulations. It is headed by the cluster director, who maintains overall authority and accountability for the performance of the PSC on behalf of its clients.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) established a regional support office, the Entebbe Support Office (ESO) in November of 2016.  This office provides regional support to UNMAS programmes based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and the Abyei Administrative Area. The areas of support include Procurement, Supply Chain, Logistics, Human Resources, Finance and Contracts Management. 

Under the overall management of the Head of Support Services and direct supervision of the Support Services Officer, the Finance Senior Officer provides advisory, management and planning services to ensure compliant planning, administration and management (including budget, treasury and cash management) of the Business Unit’s financial resources; and maintains oversight  and control of Programme financial activities,  providing value-added advisory services. This role provides support to the ESO and its field programmes in the region.

1. Implementation of operational strategies and procedures

2. Budget Preparation and Management

3. Operational Advance and Petty Cash Management

4. Control of Accounts and Payments

5. Team Management

6. Knowledge Building and Sharing

• 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 mobilization 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, timely accounting and reconciliation of all transactions, security for cash assets on site.

• Timely review of cash balances for local petty cash and operational advance accounts to ensure sufficient funds on hand for disbursements; identification and recording of receipts for expense application.

• Building of project capacity to effect payments using ERP/OneUNOPS and/or Imprest Accounts.

• Monitoring of the delivery and applications of the Funds to project PC/OA accounts.

• 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.

• Support in 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.

• 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.

• 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 practices.

• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time.
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. 
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

Contract type:        Local Individual Contractor Agreement (LICA)
Contract level:       LICA-9 (ICS-9)
Contract duration: Open-ended subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peace building, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner. Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations. With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it. A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale.