Interim Project Accountant & Administrator – CCP NGO Jobs – Farm Africa (4 months Contract)
Job Title: Interim Project Accountant & Administrator – CCP
Organization: Farm Africa
Duty Station: Lira, Uganda
Reports to: Project Coordinator – CCP
Duration: 4 months (May – September 2020)
About US:
Farm Africa, founded in 1985, is an international non-governmental organization working in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. We drive agricultural and environmental change to improve lives. Our strategy has three pillars: agricultural expertise, management and preservation of ecosystems, and the power of business to drive prosperity. We believe Africa has the power to feed itself and are helping make this happen by establishing and spreading the best farming and forestry techniques so that poor farmers and herders have more food to feed their families and to sell. We help smallholders manage their natural resources sustainably so that they can withstand climate change challenges and shocks and ensure their families have enough food in the future as well as now. Farm Africa works in partnership with communities, government, local and international organizations, and the private sector to innovate, learn and share best practices for maximum impact of our projects.
About Project:
Farm Africa is mid-way through implementation of a three-year project in partnership with aBi Development Limited and the North East Chilli Producers Association (NECPA). The project is focussed on creating a more competitive and profitable chilli value chain within Lira, northern Uganda to capitalise on growing international demand for varieties of Ugandan African Birds Eye (ABE) dried chillies. The project will strengthen the technical capacity of NECPA and their extension team to support market-orientated chilli production across their entire area of operation. Key project activities include; delivering an enhanced extension package to 3,000 (120 groups of 25) chilli farmers in Aromo, Barr and Amach sub-counties; reforming input supply within Aromo, Barr and Amach sub-counties to ensure there is an adequate flow of high-quality inputs to service growing demand from farmers; supporting NECPA to obtain the proper certification and licencing required in order to begin accessing and selling their farmers’ chillies directly into high-value export markets. At the same time, the project will promote greater inclusivity within the value chain, encouraging female and youth led production by educating on gender mainstreaming and creating new enterprise opportunities.
Job Summary: The Interim Project Accountant & Administrator – CCP will maintain high standards of financial management and reporting for Farm Africa’s Commercialising Chilli Production project on an interim basis whilst the permanent Project Accountant & Administrator is on maternity leave.
Key Duties and Responsibilities: The key responsibilities of the Interim Project Accountant & Administrator will be:
Accounting and Finance – managing income and expenditure processing, and maintaining accurate financial records – in particular:
- Ensuring prompt and accurate accounting for all project income and expenditure using SUN templates in Excel format.
- Ensuring that proper accounting records are maintained at the field site including debtor and creditor listings and staff working advance records, carrying out monthly reconciliations
- Coding and gaining authorisation for all expenditure according to Farm Africa and where applicable, aBi procedures
- Maintaining full, accurate and detailed hard copy records for each and every transaction funded by aBi for quarterly donor verification Ensuring timely payment of all invoices and expenditures
- Reviewing the quarterly transactions for NECPA and uploading them to QuickBooks/SUN.
- Conducting quarterly visits to NECPA offices to carry out internal auditing on processes and documentation
- Ensuring enough cash available for smooth implementation of the projects by preparing and submitting monthly cash forecasts to the Uganda Country Office.
- Undertaking regular banking duties including checking of balances, prompt cash and cheque deposits, collecting bank statements periodically as may be required. And acting as a bank agent for Farm Africa
- Performing monthly general ledger accounting reconciliations and analysis ensuring accuracy of ledger and month end reporting in accordance with GAAP, organisational policy and donor regulations. This includes reconciliations of bank, cash, SWA, Prepayments and creditors/Inter-project accounts
Financial reporting including:
- Supplying accurate and complete monthly project accounts to the Country Office team.
- Producing financial reports in line with donor reporting requirements Reviewing and feeding back on monthly Budget Monitoring Reports
- Monthly submission of detailed transaction reports to Kampala as required for monthly donor reporting
- Collating and submitting all accountabilities on a quarterly basis to the donor for physical verification
- Working with the Finance & Administration Manager (based in Kampala) to ensure that all donor reporting requirements are met
- Working with the NECPA finance team to ensure they are conversant with and operating within the donor financial reporting requirements
- In particular review NECPAs monthly transaction reports and verifications and share with Kampala team for onward reporting
Budgeting and budget management tasks including:
- Assisting the Project Coordinator with preparing and checking budget revisions during the year as required
- Weekly upload of all FA transactions to SUN templates
- Maintaining accurate and up to date expenditure records that allow real time monitoring of expenditure against budget for each and every budget line
Ensuring compliance with standards contained in the Farm Africa Finance Procedures Manual and aBi Finance Manual by both FA and NECPA teams, and in particular:
- Advising the Project Coordinator, Program Manager and/or Country Director on relevant budgetary control measures to address any identified weakness in policy and/or practice.
- Feeding back any pertinent financial management issues to the Finance Administrative Manager, Program Manager and/or Country Director
- Ensuring all procurement by FA or NECPA is carried out in adherence to Farm Africa’s and aBi’s procurement policies
- Ensuring that all expenditures by FA and NECPA are fully documented in line with aBi Financial Management guidelines
- Ensuring time sheets are completed where necessary (all NECPA staff and EOs, and any FA staff member who is not 100% dedicated to the project)
- Ensuring driver and vehicle log books in place, that fuel records for vehicles are analysed on a monthly basis, and that cars and motorcycles are comprehensively insured are being maintained and serviced according to supplier guidelines.
Line management:
- Assisting the Project Driver & Assistant with managing their workload in accordance with the requirements of the Farm Africa and NECPA delivery teams
- Holding supervision sessions with the Driver & Assistant at least once per quarter (to discuss progress against work plans and targets and resolve any outstanding issues)
- Ensuring all direct reports have objectives in place and their performance regularly appraised in line with Farm Africa’s systems and policies.
Playing a key role in delivering the wider objectives of Farm Africa’s aBi Chillies project including:
- Facilities management for Lira Office
- Assisting with facilitating monitoring and communications visits from Donors and/or the wider Farm Africa team
- Maintaining proper personnel files for the aBi chillies project team such as leave records, annual appraisals and general personal records
- Undertaking any other duties as reasonably requested by the project coordinator
NB: These essential functions are not to be interpreted as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other job related duties as required. All work responsibilities are subject to having performance goals and/or targets established.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant for the Farm Africa Interim Project Accountant & Administrator – CCP job must hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or Finance
- CPA (II) or equivalent
- At least three years’ experience working in an accounting position in a field/project office for a NGO
- Experience of producing project budgets and monitoring expenditure against them
- Experience of day-to-day expenditure management in a project or field office – including issuance of SWAs, verification of accountabilities etc
- Experience of maintaining detailed and accurate expenditure records
- Experience of working with local CSOs and building their financial management capacity
- Experience of auditing and/or verifying financial records of partner organisations
- Experience of managing procurement processes
- Experience of managing other staff
- Experience of facilities and/or fleet management
Skills & abilities
- Excellent Excel Skills
- Excellent IT skills
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with people from a broad range of backgrounds
Desired:
- Post graduate qualification in a relevant discipline
- CPA (III) or ACCA Qualification
- Familiarity with SUN accounting systems
- Working for an INGO as the finance lead in a field/project office
- Experience of working on aBi-funded projects
- Experience of acting as a bank agent, and using online banking to set up payments
- Experience of establishing financial record keeping systems (online and offline) and supporting partner organisations to do the same.
- Experience of maintaining HR and personnel records
- Experience of managing project-level external and/or donor audits
- Experience of using an online grants management system to report expenditure
- Negotiating & managing partner relationships
- Experience in leading teams in problem solving
How to Apply:
All candidates should send an updated CV, salary history and a two-page supporting statement detailing how you meet the person specification and your availability/notice period to ugandarecruitment@farmafrica.org including ‘Interim Project Accountant & Administrator- ‘CCP Project ’ in the subject line.
Please DO NOT send additional documents such as certificates and references with your application. Successful candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during the referencing process.
It is anticipated that first round interviews will take place over Skype w/c 20th April 2020. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Deadline: 16th April 2020 by 10:00am