Career Opportunity with RI, Bangladesh

Country Finance Manager

Duty Station: Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh (With frequent travel to field offices as required)
Report To: Country Director – General Supervision and Regional Finance Manager (RFM) – Technical
Expected Start Date: At Earliest
Contract length: Up to December 31, 2022 (With possibility of Extension subject to funding, program needs and performance of incumbent) 

About RI:  Relief International, headquartered in USA, is a leading international non-government organization working in 16 countries to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and chronic poverty.

Relief International (RI) has been working in Bangladesh since 2004, implementing programs covering emergency response, health, economic opportunity, trafficking in persons, gender equality and youth empowerment. RI has been present in Cox’s Bazar since 2014 where it was implementing a trafficking in persons project in Ukhiya and Teknaf supporting old caseload refugees as well as host communities prior to the large-scale influx. Since 2017, RI has scaled up its operations in Cox’s Bazar to support the emergency response by providing integrated, multi-sectoral programming for refugee and host communities, covering health services, including a 100- bed COVID-19 Isolation and Treatment Center in Ukhiya, child protection, SGBV, complimentary food and livelihoods opportunities to support social cohesion. Relief International is currently implementing a large scale refugee response program in Cox`s Bazar in Bangladesh in collaboration with multiple partners including UNHCR, WFP, USAID.RI maintains a country office in Dhaka with multiple field offices in Cox`s Bazar.

Relief International combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact. Our signature approach which we call the RI Way emphasizes local participation, an integration of services, strategic partnerships, and a focus on civic skills. In this way, we empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.

Position Summary:

The Country Finance Manager (FM) is responsible for the strategic direction and leadership of all Finance and Administrative functions of the Country Program. The FM will also have responsibility for ensuring that all financial transactions for the Country Program are accounted for and documented accurately. He/she will be responsible for ensuring that all RI accounting procedures are followed and budgets are adhered to; all donor and internal reporting requirements and deadlines are met; cash is controlled and accounted for in a timely manner in accordance with RI, donor and audit requirements.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Specific responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

 Financial Operations

  • Supervise all finance operations to ensure adequate support is provided to field teams, ensure adequate structure and capacity in field offices to provide effective support to programs.
  • Proactively identifies and acts upon deficiencies and areas for improvement in the Finance team, providing training and other capacity-building where necessary to ensure that capacity is continuously developing.
  • Coordination with operational team, supports the tracking and monitoring of procurements and expenditures, office purchasing, inventory, and requisition system.

Financial Management

  • Review transactional data entry in NetSuite financial system.
  • Prepare, review and verify monthly financial accounts (Balance Sheet Accounts) of the country office.
  • Coordinate, plan and supervise cash flow plans and ensure availability of funds and the accurate maintaining of bank accounts.
  • Manage bank relations and ensure positive engagement and service delivery.

Budgeting and Grant Management

  • Ensure that RI grants are implemented based on donor regulations.
  • Attend Grant Opening and Closing meetings, as well as monthly/regular grants review meetings.
  • Prepare & Review the BvAs, advice on any required documents coding when it is needed.
  • Monitor RI grants and advice program team on the spending to avoid over/under spent of the project.
  • Reviews budget revision in close coordination with Program Coordinator/Director when necessary.
  • Maintain proper records of all budgets for the country office.
  • Create Budget Lines when the budget is approved and ensure to upload correctly in NetSuite.
  • Assist in realignment exercises as needed for any budgets and ensure review of the same by RSO.
  • Monitor the program budgets and expenditure in the BVA.
  • Conduct review of budgeting and actual expenditures and develop analysis tool to better follow up of over/under spent of the grant.
  • Consolidating budget inputs and linking to the donor format for onward review by the country Finance Manager.
  • Preparing a country master budget that consolidates all country costs and the coverage/gaps available for these costs from grants. Updating the master budget quarterly.
  • Preparation of common cost allocation for all the shared costs in the country and ensure consistent application of the same.

Donor Reports and Proposals

  • To lead country team in the preparation of the budget for the proposals ensuring costs coverage as per the Country Master Budget and common costs allocations.
  • Lead the country team in preparation of timely donor reports as per the donor agreements & contracts and coordinating the review of the same by the Regional Finance Manager.

Donor Compliance

  • Ensure that grants are implemented in compliance with RI and relevant donor regulations.
  • Visit to all Field offices to check documentation and ensure compliance with donor and RI regulations.
  • Train and support program staff on donor compliance, and budget monitoring, and Grants management.

Policy and Procedures

  • Ensures compliance to RI policies and procedures in all locations and transactions.
  • Coordination with senior management team, coordinates the review and update of country specific SOPs and ensures alignment to RI policies and procedures, accounting standards while maintaining congruence to donor regulations and compliance standards.

Financial Systems

  • Supervise the use and controls around the NetSuite financial systems.
  • Point person to communicate and trouble shoot system issues, escalate to regional office and HQ on technical issues.
  • Provide training and capacity enhancement to finance teams on the use of NetSuite system.
  • Ensure all transactional documents are scanned and archived to BOX on monthly basis

Payroll

  • Review and reconcile monthly payroll records to the financial records.
  • Coordinate the monthly payroll processing in good time. Supervise the reconciliation of payroll supporting documents for completeness and accuracy.
  • Conducts monthly reconciliation of the accrued payroll accounts.
  • Periodically reconciles NetSuite payroll ledgers to SAGE payroll database.

Internal control

  • Ensure adequate internal control is maintained and enforced in the country office finance practices.
  • Enforce adequate segregation of duties and counter controls for the field offices to provide adequate oversight of the organization’s assets.

Equity and Diversity commitment

  • Demonstrate sensitivity and understanding of systemic diversity and cultural differences.
  • Ensure that gender equity is addressed in our staffing and programming.

Safeguarding

  • Uphold and promote RI’s commitment to ensuring the safeguarding and safety of the vulnerable communities we serve.
  • Consistent with RI’s safeguarding and protection policies, ensure all people who come into contact with Relief International are as safe as possible.

Qualifications & Requirements:

This position demands a highly dynamic, proactive, autonomous and flexible individual with previous exposure and work with international NGOs and humanitarian programming. An excellent communicator and team player with fluency in English and who is at ease working in a highly diverse team, capable adapting communication styles to different audiences.

  • Bachelors’ degree in Accounting and Finance.
  • Chartered accountant or CPA equivalent preferred.
  • Progressive experience in NGO or non-profit organizations and familiarity with international donor agencies and governments grants administration.
  • A minimum of 10 years’ experience as finance supervisor / lead positions with international non–profit agencies. US and EU funded grants financial and administrative management experience highly preferred;
  • Familiarity with accounting software, specifically NetSuite is a plus.
  • Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to train and motivate others.
  • Ability to travel widely in all Bangladesh locations.
  • Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines, and exercise sound judgment and discipline.
  • Logical and critical thinking skills and a comfort working with spreadsheets.
  • Strong independent task management skills and techniques, ability to prioritize and organize own workload.
  • Comfortable absorbing workload under stress periods.
  • Superior oral and written communication skills in English, including consensus building.
  • Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a team with a high degree of drive, initiative and autonomy.
  • Willingness to accept and absorb direct critique and participate in two-way dialogue with peers and managers to improve work quality and results.
  • Proven high level of computer literacy and advanced Microsoft Office Suite skills.
  • Ability to travel internationally to support country programs.

RI Values:

We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and operational independence. We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities. We value:

  • Inclusiveness
  • Transparency and Accountability
  • Agility and Innovation
  • Collaboration
  • Sustainability

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are requested to apply through online by December 23, 2021.

Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications will be reviewed as they are submitted, so candidates are encouraged to apply early.

RI Bangladesh has a non-negotiable policy of ZERO TOLERANCE towards Safeguarding. All employees are expected to abide by the Code of Conduct, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) ,Child Protection Policy and Human Trafficking Policy of Relief International.

You may check our website at www.ri.org to know about our organization.