Accountant - Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Job Title: Accountant

Department/Location: Finance/Mwanza

Reports: Regional Office Coordinator

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an International NGO specializing in Relief and Development activities through working with local partners. CRS provides equal employment opportunity to all qualified applicants and does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, religion, sex, national origin, disability or handicap. As an equal opportunity employer, CRS selects candidates based solely on their qualifications and abilities, and as such strongly encourages women, minorities and disabled persons to apply.

CRS is looking for an Accountant who will assist the Finance Manager(s) on all finance matters relating to Operations and Projects. This includes provision of technical assistance to partners and processing of partner’s advances and liquidations while ensuring the existence of best financial management practices which are in line with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), CRS policies and procedures as well as donor and other underlying requirements.

Responsibilities:

• Provide technical assistance to the program team and partner staff as needed to strengthen Financial Management Systems at the partner level.

• Conduct regular visits to partner organizations to review Financial Management Systems: review books of accounts of projects, internal control systems and financial management practices and recommend areas for improvement.

• Make sure project financial management systems at partners’ level are reviewed on regular basis, and that partners have internal control systems and financial management practices in place.

• Review and process cash advances for partners assigned to you, and manage all aspects of the funding process from requests through disbursements and liquidation processes.

• Review Partners expense reports for accuracy and prepare journal vouchers for partners’ expense reports.

• Monitor cash balances of partners to ensure that balances on hand are reasonable.

• Following the selection of partners’ for funding, conduct internal control and monitoring assessments of each partner to determine strengths and weaknesses and level of risk.

• Based on the assessments, recommend to management whether the partner should receive funding on an advance or reimbursement basis.

• Participate in the development of partner budgets and ensure that they are accurate before final approval.

• Ensure that partner project expenses are booked only against valid budgets.

• Review and process travel advances for staff, and manage the whole process from requests through disbursements / preparation and issuing of cheques.

• Monitor cash balances of the Mwanza accounts and ensure availability of cash to meet operational needs per the approved forecasts.

• Prepare journal vouchers for all Mwanza transactions, accurately and on time. Also examine all office transaction documents to ensure full compliance with relevant GAAP, donor regulations, agency’s policies and procedures as well as other underlying requirements.

• Coordinate cash forecast for Mwanza Office for the Administration and Programs activities.

• Ensure that all expenditures are recorded with correct account and account and T-codes combination and review the same on a monthly basis through Sun/Q&A extract/reports and make necessary corrections (if any).

• Prepare timely and accurate month-end financial reports such as Bank Reconciliation Statement, Statement of Cash flow, petty cash count certification

• Prepare Sun and Q&A transactions reports upon request

• Ensure SUN system financial data match the partners’ records, and resolve any differences on a monthly basis. A reconciliation report should be sent to the Finance Manager – Projects for review on a monthly basis.

• Prepare and submit trip reports identifying major issues for follow-up and recommendations, follow-up on the matters raised and close them.

• Prepare other financial reports as requested by supervisor.

• Ensure that the agency financial policies and procedures are followed and donors’ and other applicable requirements are adhered to by local partners.

• Report immediately and in writing any noted risks at that level and submit such reports to the Finance Manager-Projects.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• University degree/ Advance Diploma in Accounting/Finance/ Economics or Business Management.

• A minimum of 3-5 years’ experience in Accounting and or Finance management;

• Excellent computer skills, including MS software: Word, Excel, and Outlook.

• Excellent team-building skills and the ability to interact well with staff, collaborating agencies, and local partners.

• English and Swahili spoken and written.

If you are interested and meet these minimum qualifications, please submit your cover letter and curriculum vitae of no more than 3-pages by the 24th March 2015 to the Senior Human Resources Officer, at tz_hr@global.crs.org or through below address;

Senior Human Resources Officer

P.O. Box 34701

Catholic Relief Services

Dar es Salaam

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.