Municipal Finance & Financial Management Specialist

Job no: 492532
Work type: Full time (fixed term employment)

• Flexible and friendly working environment
• Excellent opportunity to become a valued member of SMEC's multidisciplinary team
• Outstanding career prospects

About SMEC

SMEC is a professional services firm with Australian origins and a global footprint that provides high-quality consultancy services for major infrastructure projects.

SMEC is ranked among the world's top infrastructure design firms and we have won numerous industry awards for technical excellence, including the 2011 Consult Australia Awards for Excellence, where SMEC won a record of four gold awards in four diverse project categories.

The SMEC Profile:

• It is our culture to celebrate diversity, employ great people and work on interesting projects
• We are a private company, wholly owned by our people
• We have an established network of 75 permanent offices around the world and over 5,000 employees
• We offer our people opportunities to work, both in Australia and internationally, in the areas of: Transport; Water; Natural Resources and Environment; Energy and Renewables; Geotechnical, Mining and Tunneling Services; Urban Development; Social Development; Government and Advisory Services

The role

We are currently seeking a MUNICIPAL FINANCE & FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST to manage and supervise one of Municipal Capacity Development (MCD) Consultancy Services project, in Bangladesh.

You will:

• Review, evaluate and compare tax assessment and collection procedures among pourashavas, including the identification of potential taxpayers, monitoring assessments and the collection and follow-up of unpaid taxes;
• Identify procedures/measures proven successful in pourashavas with high collection-efficiency and assess their applicability in pourashavas, city corporations, and urban centres with low-collection efficiency and then formulate appropriate measures for the improvement of collection efficiency; identify appropriate measures necessary to sustain the high collection efficiency in successful pourashavas;
• Review other measures for enhancing own-source revenue generation through tapping potential new sources of income;
• Review the current property-valuation process and recommend for reducing the current valuation period from every five years, or supplementing this with a mid-term adjustment.
• Assess the existing computerized financial management systems (accounting and tax revenue management), their built-in functions and capabilities;
• Determine how the pourashavas are currently using the computerized systems and identify gaps in their usage versus the systems' functions and capabilities;
• Evaluate capacity and competence of existing staff in effectively using the computerized systems;
• Identify and investigate factors that prevent pourashavas from abandoning their manual systems and formulate measures and action plans aimed at discontinuing their manual systems;
• Formulate recommendations for an improved and effective use of computerized systems, including additional users' training (through detailed development of training modules) initially for the target pourashavas;
• Develop a system for the adequate maintenance of registers to effectively monitor assets and liabilities;
• Prepare a Uniform Financial Management and Accounting Manual for pourashavas.
• ln coordination with LGD, discuss with CAG the possibility of introducing accrual-based accounting systems;  and
• Provide assistance to UMSU in adopting training for improved and effective use of computerized systems, including additional users' training, and supporting pourashavas adoption of the Uniform Financial Management and Accounting Manual.

The program will commence Early 2013 and run for 02 month.

Suitable applicants must have/be:

Chartered accountant (CA) or Master's degree in Financial Management or other relevant discipline with preferably 15 years of relevant experiences in financial management preferably of development projects in the urban / municipal sector Good communication skills, is familiar with participatory approaches of capacity building and training programs.

How to apply

To find out more about SMEC, please visit our careers page at http://www.smec.com. To apply, click on the "Apply Now" link below and follow the prompts.

SMEC is an equal opportunity employer. Diversity is a source of strength for our people, our clients, our partners and our communities.

Advertised: 22 Oct 2012 Bangladesh Standard Time
Applications close: 15 Nov 2012 Bangladesh Standard Time