Finance Assistant

A high school diploma or equivalent is required. A technical or vocational certificate in accounting, finance, budget, or related fields is required.

A minimum of eight (8) years of experience in financial management, administrative services, or related area is required.

• Perform the monthly and yearly closing procedures in Umoja ERP

• Analyze complex/unusual accounting transactions and difficult claims for travel, invoices, and entitlement matters, etc., and make recommendations to the Team Leader or Service Line Manager on appropriate follow-up procedures.

• Review and reconcile all open-item-managed (OIM) accounts and investigate erroneous/invalid entries to take appropriate corrective accounting action.

• Review various vouchers and accounting transactions, e.g., payroll, payment of staff entitlements, final payments, travel claims, vendor invoices, agencies, field missions, etc., to ensure conformity adherence to relevant staff rules, financial regulations, and rules, ST/AI issuances or practices.

• Issue of invoice to agencies through Service Delivery Module, and generate a periodic report to review the agencies/missions balances.

• Assist in the preparation of the bank reconciliation on a monthly basis.

• Review prior and current budget period commitments for review, recommitment, and cancellation of outstanding commitments.

• Respond to queries from staff members and third parties.

Payments

• Verify that the necessary goods and services have been received in accordance with the contract, agreement, purchase order, or another form of undertaking by which they were ordered and that they have been certified by a duly designated certifying officer before vouchers are submitted to approving officers for further review and approval.

• Review and prepare payments to staff and vendors for goods and services, including checking payments for accuracy and correcting any discrepancies.

• Review the computation of staff members regarding their entitlements, including salaries, claims, danger pay, daily subsistence allowance, mission subsistence allowance, voluntary living allowance, and any other allowances, and prepare vouchers.

• Assist in preparing the year-end reports for the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) on all pension contributions made by locally-recruited staff.

Treasury/Cashier

• Review incoming payment instructions with regard to banking details and sources of funds.

• Release payments from a House Bank in the Umoja ERP• Prepare and disburse payments/cheques.

• Dispatch payment instructions and cheques to banks.

• Prepare receipts and deposit slips for all incoming funds.

• Notify payees of the status of payments.

• Identify and annotate bank account movements and monitors bank balances of the mission’s accounts.

• Assist in cash management, including preparing cash flow forecasts.

• Assist to make sure cash in the vault is accounted for on a daily basis.

• Monitor cheque stock and cash receipt vouchers and requests for new stock as required.

• Monitor/review methods used to remit payments.

• In the absence of a Chief Cashier, oversee the daily operation of the Cashier’s Unit including the transmittal of payments.

• Coordinate filing and archiving as required.

Budget

• Review, analyze and prepare cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements, including programmatic aspects.

• Assist managers in the justification of resource requirements for budget submissions; coordinate with other finance and budget staff on related issues during the preparation of the budget reports.

• Monitor budget implementation/expenditures and assist with the reallocation of funds as necessary.

• Monitor extra-budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.

• Assist in preparation of budget performance submissions and finalization of budget performance reports, analyzing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures.

• Verify the accuracy of input data, ensuring consistency of data in previous allotments to new allotments issued.

• Provide inputs into the preparation of allotments and prepare redeployment requests.

General

• Keep up-to-date on guidelines that have bearing on matters related to programme/peacekeeping budgets, ensuring compliance with United Nations policies and procedures.

• Draft or prepare correspondence to respond to inquiries with respect to financial and budget matters.

• Provide guidance and training (including preparation of training materials) to junior staff with respect to transaction processing and the use of various systems such as Umoja ERP System (SAP).