The Senior Finance and Compliance Officer is a key position for the Third Party Monitoring (TPM) of the Humanitarian and Resilience Program (HARP) project.

CLEAR Global (CLEAR), in consortium with Fact Foundation (FACT) and IMPACT Initiatives (IMPACT) will be supporting FCDO, HARP IPs, and the affected populations of Northeast Nigeria by conducting a range of TPM activities to ensure that the humanitarian programming within the HARP portfolio is carried out effectively, compliantly, and attuned towards the needs of affected populations, while promoting continuous learning through innovative best practices for the HARP program, as well as the wider humanitarian response.

The Senior Finance and Compliance Officer is primarily responsible for providing oversight to the day-to-day financial management and compliance of the CLEAR Global led consortium, in very close coordination with the CLEAR Global Finance Team. They will work in close collaboration with staff in the Program Teams and Finance teams of consortium partners and manage Finance and Logistics Officers or Assistants. The Senior Finance and Compliance Officer and their team will ensure consortium members meet the highest standards of financial management and are fully compliant with government and donor rules and regulations. They will support all FCDO TPM Consortium members to that effect by reviewing partner’s budgets and reports, and by documenting all financial and compliance matters related to sub-grantees’ grant management to assure audit readiness at all times. They will provide guidance and training related to finance and compliance to sub-grantees in order to strengthen their capacity as necessary. The Senior Finance and Compliance Officer acts as the focal point for financial and compliance aspects of the FCDO TPM Consortium for sub-grantees, including ensuring high-quality financial and compliance monitoring of sub-grantees.

Responsibilities

Financial and compliance Management

• Participate in the partner’s proposal reviews and modification processes focusing on sub-grantee budget.
• Ensure proactive communication with sub-grantees about the submission of their financial reports according to terms of their sub-grants.
• Ensure tracking of sub-grantees submission of financial reports and forecasts, communicating delays to the Consortium Manager.
• Review and validate spending plans from partners against reported expenditures, following-up with sub-grantees as needed.
• Submit summary of reported expenditures and spending plans to the Consortium Manager and the Head of International Programs, outlining follow-up steps.
• Making sure that the sub-grantee financial reports are approved by the appropriate authority and processed within CLEAR Global.
• Respond to questions that arise from the Consortium Manager and the Head of International Programs regarding submitted financial reports.
• Ensure payment requests for sub-grantee payment (advances and reimbursements) are prepared and processed, respond to questions that arise from the Global finance team and CLEAR Global Global leadership team regarding submitted payment requests.
• Ensure timely follow-up on the status of payments release, tracking them and informing sub- grantees in a timely manner on the status of the payments. Follow up with CLEAR Global Finance team and sub- grantees confirming transfer and receipt of payments, respectively.
• Ensure monitoring visit plans drafted and submitted ahead of visits to the Consortium Manager to review and share monitoring visit reports in a timely manner to partners.
• Participate in case management meetings with the program, finance, HR and other staff to respond to regular issues as they arise within partner management and ensure properly coordinated and managed responses to sub-grantees issues as they arise.
• Ensure the sub-grantees advances are reconciled on monthly/quarterly basis, report to the Consortium Manager on all overdue, unliquidated advances; ensure that all tracking sheets for sub-grants finances are updated on monthly basis.
• In coordination with the Consortium Manager and CLEAR Global Finance Team, develop or revise sub-grantee financial templates (including proposal budget formats, monthly/quarterly reporting templates, and other documents, as needed).

• Review all sub-grantee budget modifications in coordination with the partners, Consortium Manager, and the Head of International Programs ensuring clear action points for follow-up are communicated.
• Responsible for compiling and submitting IATI declarations.
• Act as the focal person and lead for all external audits to ensure proper compliance with all regulations and to ensure that all sub-awardee files in hard and soft copies are always 100% ready for audit
• Provide support on procurement related responsibilities, recruitments and administrative duties that may be incidental to the successful function of the role.

Vetting and Capacity-Building of Partners:

• Ensure that pending issues from partners’ Due Diligence Assessment (DDAs) are resolved. Report to the Consortium Manager and the Head of International Programs on the findings from follow up reviews and provide recommendations for improvement.
• Support in developing a risk management action plan and suggest corrective actions to address/mitigate risks identified during the DDA process.
• Design, update and deliver financial management training for partners’ staff, working closely with the Finance and Logistics Officer on the training materials according to the needs in order to build the organizational capacity of the partner.
• Conduct finance and general compliance monitoring visits to partners together with the Finance and Logistics Officer and prepare monitoring reports and action plans to submit to the Consortium Manager and share with partners in a timely manner for each visit.

Management

• Recruit, lead, empower, and manage the Finance and Administration Officer.
• Take the lead on the finance section of the Grant Opening, Review and Closing meetings, making sure that the partners are fully aware of donor regulations, all financial reporting requirements in terms of required documentation, reporting templates and deadlines.
• Represents Finance in Consortium Workshops, being the key facilitator and presenter for all finance related sessions.

• Provide assistance with requests from CLEAR Global global team as directed by the Consortium Manager

Any other duties relevant to the job description as needed.

Qualifications

Required

• In-depth knowledge of FCDO rules and regulations.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, finance, or any related field.
• Minimum 5 years of progressive work experience in a non-profit setting overseeing and managing partners’ projects funded by major institutional donors.
• Experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring of staff of NGOs/CBOs.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present to groups of all sizes.
• Self-starter with ability to work independently and part of a team.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively under pressure and handle multiple simultaneous tasks.
• Proficiency in MS Office software suite – including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Proficiency with Quickbooks is an advantage.
• Experience working with databases and/or other tracking systems

Essential Aptitude

• Capacity to work remotely, prioritize, and work independently with minimal supervision
• Detail-oriented, thorough, accurate, able to meet deadlines under time pressure, and able to work quickly and steadily in a focused manner
• Demonstrates initiative, persistence, ability to problem solve, and enthusiasm for learning
• Good interpersonal skills
• Ability to mediate, negotiate, and resolve conflicts constructively
• Able to innovate to find creative solutions; willing to explore new technologies