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Finance & Administration Officer Job at Merlin

Country: Democratic Republic Of Congo
Responsible To: DRC Country Finance Director Location: Goma, DRC Start Date: ASAP Contract Duration: 12 months Salary: £24,980 - £25,730 per annum (dependant on relevant experience), Inclusive of annual Cost of Living Allowance Benefits: Insurance cover, accommodation, R&R, annual leave entitlement of 24 days per annum rising to 30 days at the completion of 12 months of continuous employment with Merlin.
Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be shortlisted on a regular basis and we may offer this post before the closing date.
Please note: this is an unaccompanied position.
Merlin International Profile Merlin specialises in health, saving lives in times of crisis and helping to rebuild shattered health services. Each year, Merlin helps more than 15 million people in up to 20 countries.
Context and Background The Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) is the third largest country in Africa and one of the poorest. Decades of dictatorship and an ongoing, unresolved civil war has left much of the national infrastructure destroyed. Merlin has been operational in eastern DRC since 1997 when it established emergency medical support to populations in Maniema Province. Merlin teams have been providing emergency medical care to the most vulnerable, accessible populations in Maniema Province, Kasai Oriental Province, North Kivu and Orientale Province, and in response to the Goma volcanic eruption of Jan 2002. Activities include: emergency response, primary health support and supply, secondary health support and supply, reproductive health, institutional capacity building, nutrition, WAT/SAN, rehabilitation of health facilities • Merlin is the sole source of essential medical support for 110 primary & secondary health facilities, providing health care to over 1,100,000 beneficiaries.
• In Maniema Province, Merlin is implementing a and nutrition project in ten health zones, and a DFID (British government) funded referral hospital project in the provincial capital Kindu, totaling approximately 1.8 million beneficiaries. • In North Kivu, Merlin implements a DFID funded primary healthcare project in Manguredjipa and Biena health zones, with emergency support to IDPs within the province, as well as USAID and ECHO funded primary health care projects.
Merlin’s Goma office is a management and support office for five field-site projects in eastern DRC. The office handles the financial and reporting aspects of a multi-million dollar grant portfolio, the HR and administrative requirements for the 20 expatriates and 200 national staff, all national and international purchasing, and in-country transportation (almost exclusively by air) of staff and material between the Goma office and field sites.
Main purpose of the role To help support Merlin’s team in DRC with a particular focus upon financial procedures. The successful candidate will work closely with the Country Finance Director and national staff with an emphasis on capacity building of the latter.
Overall Objectives (scope) The FAO will assist with the implementation, maintenance and compliance of financial systems and procedures. This includes timely budget preparation, amendments and forecasts, financial reporting, and internal monitoring. The FAO must also ensure that all administrative and financial procedures and systems are in line with local laws and regulations.
Responsibilities • To assist DRC Country Finance Director with all Month End Accounting which will involve Verifying the accuracy of cash books i.e. checking for coding errors Upload of Cash books into the Financial system Monthly Balance sheet reconciliations • Assist in the Preparation of budgets and amendments with the DRC Country Finance Director for submission to Country Management Team. • Assist the Finance team with resolving queries from the field. • Ensure that proper financial procedures and systems are in place, operated and maintained in field sites and Goma office • Ensure compliance with the financial policies and guidelines of Merlin and the requirements of donors. • Co-ordinate and maintain a cash forecasting system for submission to London office in time to ensure adequate funds are available to meet program requirements. • Liaising with field sites to ensure cash requirements are met and coordinating delivery of cash to field sites • Ensure that field sites send all documents pertaining to their monthly account for onward submission to London on a monthly basis. • Provide budgetary analysis to Field sites through the production of monthly Budget Versus Actuals (BVA’s) to enable the team to monitor ongoing levels of expenditure on individual programs against budget and provide timely advice of likely over- and under-spends. • Assist the DRC Country Finance Director in the preparation of budgets, amendments and forecasts working with the Country Management Team. • Maintaining a reporting schedule of Donor reports and advising the DRC Country Finance Director when reports are due. • Assist the DRC Country Finance Director with the production of donor reports • Conduct internal audits for the field sites every three months, to ensure that all financial and administrative procedures are carried out in line with Merlin Guidelines and local Legislation • Provide support, training and advice to staff as required. • Deputizing in the absence of the DRC Country Finance Director
Person Specification Essential
Qualifications, experience and competences • Previous practical experience in an accounting or finance position. • Experience of implementing financial control systems. • In depth knowledge of financial systems, financial/administrative management and reporting. • Strong communication skills, with excellent written and spoken English and French • Confident and proficient in the use of MS Office with intermediate Excel knowledge example pivot tables, V-lookup. • Good training/capacity building and management skills. • Focused individual with capacity to plan and manage in a multiple deadline-working environment. • Willing to work in an insecure environment. • Understanding of security issues and guidelines. • Strong interpersonal skills and good team player. • Ability to work on own initiative. • Experience of establishing strong working relationships with colleagues from different functions and cultures • Experience of a flexible approach to managing and prioritising a high workload and multiple tasks in a fast paced environment with tight deadlines • Experience of proactively identifying and addressing issues • An understanding of and commitment to Merlin’s mission and values
Desirable Qualifications, experience and competences • Previous experience of working in field financial management. • Experience of field administrative/HR management. • Experience of donor compliance (OFDA, DFID and ECHO mainly)
Data Protection In accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act Merlin will hold and use personal information that you have given for the purposes of recruitment and employment should an offer of employment be made. This information will be stored in manual and/or computer form. This information may also be disclosed to third parties in accordance with the Data Protection Act. In cases where a job offer is conditional on ensuring that potential employees’ names do not appear on counter terrorism lists generated by the United Nations, European Union or the United States due to donor funding requirements, Merlin will use the information that you have given for checking that your name does not appear on these lists.
How to apply: 
To apply for this position
To apply for this job, please go to www.merlin.org.uk/jobs and apply using our online recruitment system. In order to apply for a job with Merlin online you will need to complete a short registration process and create an account – the online recruitment system explains how to do this. Once your account has been created, you will be able to save the information that you have entered in your application and re-visit it at any time before you submit it.
If you are unable to apply online please download and complete an application form and email it to: applications@merlin.org.uk.
Please note that we do not accept CVs and any application must therefore be made online or by completing our application form. Unfortunately due to the number of applications we receive, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
 

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