Finance Manager – Grants

Summary of responsibilities

1. Grants Monitoring,

• Lead and supervise budget monitoring for all grants under your team.
  
• Continuously review, develop and implement monitoring mechanisms that ensures expenditure is within the agreed donor budgets and that there is no overspends on any of the restricted grants.
  
• Be a key player and advisor in the issues of grants accounting and management to ensure accurate coding of expenses and full compliance with both CIFOR-ICRAF and donor requirements.
  
• Oversee and coordinate budget vs expenditure review meetings for projects under your team to provide feedback and analysis to the stakeholders on expenditure trends and areas with significant over- or under spending and propose subsequent actions.
  
• Ensure a complete record of all pertinent documents of the projects allocated to your team are well kept and accessible. f. Lead in the development of financial management mechanisms that minimize financial risk and maintain internal financial control safeguards/mechanisms on restricted grants activities.
  
• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of relevant donor policies, regulations, and procedures. h. Plan and coordinate occasional project field sites visits to ensure financial controls and procedures are in place for the various donor projects under your team.
  
• Lead and oversee liaison with Program Management Unit on the development of Letter(s) of Agreement with partners, project start-ups and set ups in myTree and OCS, creation of budget codes, budget updates and project tracking & closure for projects under your team.
  
• Key resource on financial requirements of new donors and overall responsible for communicating these requirements to project staff and partners.
  
• Coordinate and oversee preparation of projects performance reports including funding status and burn rates for sharing with the project managers for grants under your team.
  
• Ensure regular updates and feedback sessions are held between the finance leads and contacts for the various grants and the project managers for grants under your team.
  

2.     Grants Reporting and Compliance:

• Coordinate the preparation, review and submission of all donors financial reports that comply with donor requirements in all aspects for grants under your team.
  
• Implement donor reporting and compliance framework that ensures donor reports under your team are accurate and submitted on time to mitigate reputational risks with the donors.
  
• Lead in the coordination of responses to respective queries and clarifications in relation to donor reports from donors and other stakeholders.
  
• Review and Approve reports for grants under your team for signature on the specific projects’ finances to donors and other users in compliance with CIFOR-ICRAF standards and as specifically pre-determined by the donor as mentioned on the signed Grant Agreements and Donor’s General Conditions.
  
• Follow-up to ensure donor final financial reports for grants under your team are submitted in myTree system.
  
• Lead in capacity building, coaching and mentoring of grants finance staff under your team and local partners by developing learning activities, meetings and materials to support their capacity building on various grants compliance requirements.
  

3.    Partners Financial Management Monitoring

•  Continuously review, develop and implement partner financial monitoring tools and mechanisms to mitigate the risks of partner non-compliance and ineligible expenditures.
  
• Lead and oversee follow up on financial reporting for partners for grants under your team.
  
• Lead and supervise financial compliance for all grants partners and ensure partners spend within their budgets and are following the laid down donor and/or CIFOR_ICRAF financial procedures and regulations.
  
• Lead and coordinate the review of grants partner expenses and provide feedback and analysis to the project leaders and managers on expenditure trends and areas with significant over- or under spending
  
• Arrange and lead regular meetings with partners’ finance teams to give feedback on their financial performance, compliance, areas of weaknesses and steps to take to mitigate the risks and any internal control issues.
  
• Lead and coordinate partner financial capacity building on accounting, compliance and donor requirements.
  

4. Grants Budget Revisions

• Supervise and Coordinate budget revisions and extensions for on-going restricted grants in collaboration with Resource Mobilization Team and the Research Teams.
  
• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of relevant donor policies, regulations, and procedures.To ensure the organization’s policies on full cost recovery and laid down donor regulations are adhered to in all donor budgets revisions and extensions.
  
• Key resource for project proposal/budget preparation regarding compliance issues for prospective sources of funding.
  
• Review and approve revised budgets for on-going projects prepared by the Senior Finance Officers and Finance Officers to ensure they adhere to the grant’s agreements and any other communication from the donors.
  

5. Institutional, Grants and Partner Audits

•  Plan, Organize and oversee management of grants audits as per the donor agreements for grants under your team.
  
• Coordinate and attend entry and exit meetings on audit of projects for grants under your team.
  
• Key resource on queries from the external auditors. d. Review the draft audit reports and provide draft management responses.
  
• Review partner audit reports.
  
• Assist in the preparation of restricted grants schedules and information requested and required for the annual statutory audit.
  
• Coordinate and preside over the interim and final CIFOR-ICRAF external audit process relating to the grants under your team and finalization of the statutory financial statements.
  

6. Donor payables and receivable balances management

• Monitor and reconcile donor payable and receivable balances for grants under your team.
  
• Ensure the invoicing timelines conditions as per the grant agreements are adhered to.
  
• Ensure the donor amounts receivable from donors for grants under your team are promptly collected.
  
• Provide explanation on the monthly summary of donor receivables and payables >USD 50K, prepared by Treasury team.
  
• Assist and ensure incoming funds from restricted donors are identified and coded appropriately.
  

7. Team Leadership

• Supervise staff directly reporting to you by managing their performance, including setting goals and objectives, coaching, and delivering results.
  
• Perform performance evaluation for the team, both mid-year and annually
  

8.Internal Controls

·    Implement internal control systems that ensure CIFOR_ICRAF attains its objectives, produce accurate and reliable data for decision making.

·       Ensure compliance to policies and safeguard of CIFOR_ICRAF assets.

·   Ensure deployment of control activities through implementation of CIFOR_ICRAF policies that establish what is expected and procedures that put policies into action.

·       Identify and assess changes that could significantly impact the system of internal control in the Centre.

·       Evaluate and communicate internal control deficiencies in a timely manner to the supervisor.

Other Responsibilities

•  CIFOR-ICRAF Annual Budgeting - Oversee compliance, completeness and accuracy of restricted grants annual budgets included in the annual Program of Work and Budgets for grants under your team - Be a key resource during the consolidation and review of the annual Program of Work and Budgets b. Pre-Award proposal development - Be a key resource for project proposal/budget preparation in regard to compliance issues for prospective sources of funding. - Be a key resource for partner financial capability assessment for existing or previous partners during proposal/budget preparation.