The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

 

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

 

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

ROLE PROFILE

 

Job Title	Lead Accountant-Controls &Accounting
Function	Finance	Supervises	Programme Area Accountants Accountant Reconciliation Country Office Accountant Finance Officer (roving)
Reports to	Head of Finance
Location	Country Office	Travel required	10 %
Effective Date	June 2022	Grade	Level 15

ORGANISATION OVERVIEW & ROLE PURPOSE

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. However, this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination, and it is girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners in more than 70 countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas, Plan International’s purpose is to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality of girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. We enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. Plan International Uganda’s (PIU) five-year Country Strategy (CS) has been approved for the period 2023 – 2027. Currently, the country programme reaches over 1 million children supported in four Programme Areas (PAs) and an urban programme in Kampala. It has a country annual budget turnover of around €16 million, a growing team of over 300 full time staff. PIU manages a caseload of 33,000 sponsored children and a large and diverse grants portfolio from bilateral and multilateral donors with a strong pipeline and potential of further funding opportunities.

The purpose of this role is to provide financial and accounting services to support the operations of the Plan International Uganda to ensure accuracy and consistency in accordance with Plan financial policy / procedures and donor requirements. The role provides support to Programme Areas by ensuring that all information is updated in the relevant Plan International Uganda Systems supports management decisions making to enhance the effectiveness of activities to support achievement of Plan International Uganda’s strategy. The incumbent will be responsible for the Programme Area Accountants, Accountant Reconciliations, Country Office Accountant and Finance Officer (Roving) and ensuring donor compliance at all levels according to Plan International Uganda’s approved policies / procedures and donor requirements

ROLE DIMENSIONS:

The Lead Accountant-Controls and Accounting provides oversight and management support for all aspects of Financial management ensuring accuracy, transparency, accountability, effective financial management and compliance in all aspects of Plan International Uganda’s transactions.  The role provides leadership to the Control and Accounting team based at the Country office and program areas and provide adequate management information to the project/program managers.

The role involves considering the accounting and cost implications of both strategic and operational plans, advising management on how to achieve optimal value for money; considerable analytical thinking is required.

The key challenges for this position are working with the guidance of laws and regulations, policies and procedures to deliver work. Managing risks of accounting processes ensuring financial controls are working well Dealing with high level managers and relevant partner organisations in ensuring accuracy and compliance with the financial policies and procedures Delegation of duties to Programme Area Accountants, Finance Officer Roving, Accountant Reconciliation and Country Office Accountant.

Level of contact with children

This position has been classified as “low contact”: Limited interaction with children

Key result areas:

KRA 1: Accounting Systems Development & Oversight

Lead the ongoing review and improvement of PIU’s Finance Management system, liaising with the Global hub to adapt central systems to the Uganda context, so that the payment platform is efficient and reporting meets user requirements:

Keep up to date with best practice in financial management, donor requirements, and with statutory compliance requirements in Uganda; ensuring that PIU’s financial management system is updated accordingly

Support the development and implementation of systems, policies and procedures to ensure all financial transactions of PIU are monitored for conformity with internal controls and in line with the approved governance and financial risk management guidelines

Act as the focal person for the improvement of the finance management systems; providing support to the team and programme areas to adapt to the central accounting system

Oversee the posting of accurate transactions into SAP; ensuring that support documents are reviewed and mapped out to the different projects and ensuring a timely export of the actual expenditures to the offline tool

Manage the general ledgers to ensure that transactions have been done correctly, allocated to the corresponding grant, and that all statutory payments have been made

KRA 2: Treasury Management

Manage the treasury operations of PIU, reviewing and monitoring monthly cash flows and scheduling fund transfers to ensure sufficient funds and petty cash for all operations and programme activities for PIU:

Conduct rigorous financial analysis to determine PIU’s financial status with regards to cash management, liquidity maintenance, availability of funds, optimisation of resource utilisation and forex exposure, highlighting any concerns to management

Ensure timely submission of accurate financial reports according to the reporting schedule for. Balance Sheet Account reconciliations, and Year End reports

Review and approve inter-company transactions, ensuring all recharges from other Plan entities are entered in the system within the period of receipt and respective journals approved

Ensure relevant support documents for recharge costs are submitted to receiving Plan entities and the intercompany account reconciled to zero at period end

Ensure quarterly cash projections for the country is prepared and uploaded in the Business Process Consolidation system and monthly consolidated realistic cash requests to GH uploaded in BPC as per schedule

Approve payment requests as well as payments on online platform and mobile money wallet as per delegated financial authority and clear all payments on the SAP bank account for CO

Ensure Staff salaries and benefits are accurately calculated and promptly paid as per Plan policies and procedures

Work with relevant departments especially Budgeting and Reporting to ensure cost recovery is implemented related to salary allocation & re allocation, office running costs, PU and CO monthly support cost allocation

KRA 3: Risk & Compliance Management

Work with the Head of Finance to develop and enhance PIU’s financial controls; lead the implementation of PIU’s control system and ensure compliance with statutory requirements:

Ensure that key Financial Management risks are comprehensively mapped at all levels of PIU’s financial Management; develop and implement risk mitigating actions

Ensure all transactions are compliant to Plan International Uganda’s financial policy, donors & National Office requirements, relevant laws and regulations prior to being accurately coded

Coordinate actions based on the CPP audits and spot check recommendations related to the Finance Department

Ensure provision of support during all projects and statutory audits; preparing for and cooperating with all internal and external audits and ensure effective implementation of all audit recommendations

Ensure all monthly and annual returns are accurate and filed promptly as per the statutory deadlines

Ensure staff salaries and benefits are correctly calculated and promptly paid as per Plan policies and procedures

Coordinate the accounting and Controls team to ensure that all compliance/due diligence checks are conducted, monitoring all payments and all noncompliance is promptly highlighted

KRA 4: Leadership & Staff Management

Develop and lead the Accounting & Controls Team in a manner that empowers them to deliver high quality, timely, support to the wider organisation:

Liaise with the department’s internal and external customers to understand their needs for support and information; develop service level agreements if appropriate

Regularly review the team staffing levels to ensure that required service levels can be realistically delivered; at the same time ensuring that staff are fully occupied and working efficiently

Communicate clear performance expectations to the team, providing training, coaching and other support as required; manage any poor performance firmly but fairly, in line with PIU’s policy

Coordinate effectively with others to ensure high performance within PIU’s matrix operating structure

Foster an inclusive environment by implementation of policies that provide for diversity and equal opportunities and utilisation of a leadership style that will drive employee engagement

ROLE REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree from a recognised university

ACCA/CPA/CIMA fully qualified

At least 5years of progressive experience in financial management in relatively large organisations of similar complexity to Plan International in Uganda, specially grants funded organizations or commercial businesses.

Leadership Competencies

Myself as a Leader

Courageous in taking a lead, challenging self and others on their attitudes, assumptions, unconscious bias and behaviour; speaks positively about change and supports others in adjusting to it.

Lasting Impact

Drives progress in area of responsibility by setting and communicating an ambitious but realistic strategy, aligned with PIU’s strategy; willing and able to take complex decisions, weighing up the available information and assessing opportunities and risks.

Open & Accountable

Ensures effective delivery by leading through others, working closely with our support functions, keeping abreast of what is going on in own business unit or function and responding quickly if problems arise.

Work Well Together

Creates a positive team spirit, helping people work well together as a team; proactively resolves situations of conflict by generating solutions that will work for all involved; deliberately adjusts own behaviour to influence or persuade others.

Inclusive & Empowering

Delegates tasks and decisions, trusting and stretching others but ensuring they have the resources and support they need; adopts a coaching approach with the people they manage or advise.

Skills & Knowledge

Motivates and develops others by taking an interest, giving constructive feedback and praise, ensuring they are properly trained and helping them develop their potential; acts as a role model of continuous professional development and willingness to learn from mistakes.

Critical Business Management Competencies

Experience of strategic financial management including understanding relevant funding sources, revenue cycles, budgeting and cost estimation, balance sheets, return on investment etc.

Outstanding ability to analyse and interpret complex data-sets, both internal and external, to spot trends and patterns, opportunities and risks, and to inform decisions and action (even when the information is incomplete or ambiguous).

Experience of incorporating digital and technological solutions into plans and activities, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of working practices, enhance communication and support innovation.

Experience of identifying and mitigating business or project risks; ability to undertake and interpret risk assessments with a track record of actively managing risks appropriately in context, taking professional advice or escalating where appropriate.

Strong written and spoken communication skills, including in [any required language], with an ability to effectively adjust content and presentation to suit varied audiences internally and externally, to get key messages across.

Excellent track record of managing people with an engaging leadership style; experience of recruiting, delegating, managing performance and promoting safety, health, security and wellbeing of staff

Critical Technical Competencies

Thorough understanding of financial accounting, reporting, and grants, sub grants and contracts management processes.

Solid Analytical thinking and problem solving, financial trouble shooting and audit experience

Solid knowledge of key donor regulations and compliance requirements

Location:Uganda, Kampala

Type of Role: Fixed Term

Reports to: Head of Finance

Grade: Level 15

Closing Date:19/08/2022

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