Finance Officer

On 24 February 2022, the military of the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine, with strikes across the territory of Ukraine. Since then, Russia’s invasion imposes a severe humanitarian and socio-economic toll, global energy and food crisis, large-scale destruction of the country's infrastructure, and disruptions in the provision of critical services and degradation of social fabrics and communities’ ties, triggering one of the world’s most significant forced displacements. 

Severe attacks on energy and critical infrastructure facilities leave millions of people without electricity, water or heating supply, struggling to access water, food, health services, materials to repair homes, among others. The continued attacks cause substantial damage to the country’s economy and agricultural production, and also affect the poorest countries worldwide.

UNOPS support to partners spans the humanitarian-development nexus from emergency response to building back better, across the housing, health, education, transport, energy and mine action sectors, through infrastructure, procurement and technical assistance / project management interventions, with the ultimate aim of supporting the country on its EU accession and in its achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

Under the overall guidance of the Finance Manager, the Finance Officer provides a variety of specialized finance, accounting, and budget related activities ensuring high quality, accuracy and consistency of work. The Finance Officer promotes a client, quality and results-oriented approach and works in close collaboration with the Projects’ and Operations personnel in the UNOPS office in Ukraine, Multi-Country and Regional Offices, UNOPS HQ units and ensuring successful delivery of financial services.

Summary of Key Functions  

1. Implementation of operational strategies

2. Budget preparation, monitoring and control

3. Cash management and treasury

4. Commitments and Payments

5. Financial Reporting

6. Knowledge building and knowledge sharing

• Implementation of the internal Standard Operating Procedures in Finance in UNOPS Office in Ukraine under the supervision of the Finance Specialist;

• Full compliance with UNOPS Financial Rules and Regulations, the Finance Manual and Finance and Budget Technical Instructions in all financial transactions, recording, reporting, etc.;

• Routine monitoring of financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions, and analysis of anomalies or unusual transactions with further actions if required;

• Analysis and implementation of cost-saving and reduction strategies. 

• Elaboration of proposals for planning of financial resources of the UNOPS Office in Ukraine, preparation of reports containing analysis of the financial situation;

• Coordination of the preparation of project 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; 

• In coordination with the Finance Specialist, ensure compliance with UNOPS financial rules and regulations, financial policies and procedures and that project budgets and revisions are prepared in accordance with established procedures and budgetary guidelines of the funding agency; project budget re-phasing processed accurately and timely;

• Identification of administrative budgetary requirements; guidance on guidelines for budget preparation, the format to be used in reflecting budget proposals and the procedures for submission to facilitate consolidation at the global level;

• Review of budget proposals for reasonableness, consistency with the organizational goals and priorities;

• Monitoring and advice to the Head of Support Services and Finance Specialist on the financial status of projects and programmes (including pending and approved budgets; contributions confirmed but not yet available for expenditure; contributions available for expenditure and contributions already expended);

• Monitoring of expenditure levels against allotments. Reviewing and processing of request for budget revision as required;

• Monitoring of the status of budgetary allocations on an ongoing basis; networking with clients to strengthening of budget management and take corrective actions when required;

• Maintenance of the UNOPS Project Budget formulation system ensuring timely input and processing of data. With the cooperation of the Information Technology group, ensuring the relevance of the system at all times by updating and proposing changes to facilitate financial management of projects and enhance financial reporting.

• Flagging the risks with the Finance Specialist when required so that timely corrective actions can be taken.

• Provision support to timely review of cash position for local accounts to ensure sufficient funds on hand for disbursements, timely identification and recording of receipts for income application;

• Monitoring of imprest level through daily review of zero-balance account bank statements in oneUNOPS; identification and recording of contributions;

• Provision support to efficient local banking arrangements and compliance with local financial and banking regulations;

• Timely preparation of weekly/monthly cash flow forecast for use by the Financial Specialist;

• Initiation of bank transfers and deals, selecting bank transfers and deals for approval and settlement;

• Acting as cashier for on-site transactions if it will be decided by internal split of responsibilities;

• Monitoring of the delivery and income of the portfolio; planning and adjustment of expenditures for the administrative budget;

• Analysis of trends and forecasting of recovery from projects and other sources.

• Ensuring full compliance with Financial Rules and Regulations and UNOPS procedures with regard to financial processes, financial records, reports, and audit follow up;

• Monitoring and ensuring validity of charges by verifying authorized amounts and ensuring availability of budget and funds;

• Prior to further processing, reviewing payment requests for completeness and ensuring documentation is complete and information concerning the payment provided as required: proper accounting codes used, payment to sub-contractor/supplier is in compliance with terms and conditions of agreement;

• Support the Finance Specialist in analyzing, developing and implementing the internal expenditures’ control system which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in oneUNOPS; payrolls are duly prepared; travel claims and other entitlements are duly processed;

• Preparation of non-PO payment requests when needed;

• Ensuring that authorized corrective actions are taken in a timely manner on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers. Timely responding to HQ and Regional office requests to resolve financial data issues.

• Control of the Accounts Receivables for UNOPS projects and follow up with partners on contributions.

• Ensuring of proper maintenance of the Office financial accounts; preparation of financial records, periodic statements and reports as required.;

• Proper receipt, management, safeguarding and disbursement of payments handled by Office;

• Control and verifying of supporting documents for payments; preparation of all types of vouchers; execution of payments;

• Preparation of periodic accounts closure;

• Monitoring/follow-up on the remittances and payments completion with due recoding in accounting system;

• Support with bank reconciliation reports;

• Maintenance of contact with the local bank to obtain bank statements, information on changes in procedures, bank regulations, etc.

• Preparation of financial and statistical reports for internal use as required by management;

• Reconciliation of expenditures recorded in oneUNOPS finance system;

• Maintenance of financial filing system to ensure clear and auditable trail on all financial transactions;

• Completion of Finance profile tasks in oneUNOPS.

• Provision of support to implementation of audit and its recommendations, prepare Office replies to internal and external audit queries;

• Contribution to the implementation of internal control systems, report any identified weaknesses and suggest remedial action(s);

• Managing Petty Cash Account, maintenance of all receipts and creation of ledger report;

• Preparing of Operational Advance Request, maintenance of records of expenditures and reconcile;

• Provision support to the organization and conduct of training for the operations/ projects staff on Finance;

• Filing of lessons learned and best practices in Finance;

• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Perform other duties as may be reasonably required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above.

a. Education 

• Bachelor’s Degree preferably in Finance, Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics or related field is required.  

b. Work Experience 

• Minimum of two years of relevant working experience within the areas of financial management and/or accounting is required.

• Experience with use of an ERP system is highly desired.

• Experience in the usage MS Office and/or G Suite (Google Workplace) with advance knowledge of spreadsheet packages is required.

c. Language Requirements

• Fluency in written and oral English and Ukrainian

d. Certification

• IPSAS and ACCA certificates would be an asset

This is a local position, therefore only candidates with Ukrainian nationality or valid resident permit are eligible to apply.

Contract type: Local ICA
Contract level: Local ICA  Specialist - LICA8
Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 

• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.