Job Title:  Controller (Finance and Grants)

Organisation: Strømme Foundation (SF)

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: Regional Finance and Administration Manager

About US:

Strømme Foundation (SF) is a rights-based development NGO that works towards a vision of a world free from poverty. Our most important interventions in the fight against poverty are education, economic inclusion/ job creation and a strong civil society. We are among the 10 largest development organisations in Norway. With regional and country offices in West Africa, East Africa and Asia consisting only of local employees, we work through local partners in 11 countries. In East Africa, Strømme Foundation works in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan with regional offices in Kampala, Uganda.

Job Summary:  The Controller (Finance and Grants) will be responsible for delivering high quality and timely financial reports, budgets, donor reports, audits, risk assessments, funds management, and manage grants for all the partners across the region by ensuring proper internal controls across all implementing partners.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Oversee the financial management of all implementing partners

• Actively participate in due diligence processes of identifying new partners.
• Conducting partner’s capacity assessment and identify areas of improvement and work with relevant parties to have all issues addressed.
• Conducting frequent partner’s visit and deliver trainings on internal controls, anti-corruption, project budgeting, budget management, financial reporting, and management of audits.
• In coordination with partner mentors, taking a lead in reviewing partner’s monthly/quarterly funds request and submitting the final funds disbursement schedule to the Regional Finance and Administration Manager.
• Manage Partner’s funds balances and ensure that all unspent funds are refunded back to Stromme Foundation.
• Conducting risk assessment for partners in a timely manner
• Preparing a plan to address all gaps identified in the risk assessment
• Participate in reviewing and improving partner tools and templates.
• Supporting partners to effectively manage their own budgets

Project budgeting, and budget management

• Support the project team and partners in preparing project budgets in line with the project workplan, unit cost schedule and log framework and providing the quality checks to ensure high levels of accuracy and ensuring that all applicable budget lines on salaries, NSSF, gratuity, insurance and other overheads are fully incorporated in to every budget.
• Support partners in preparing both annual budgets and revised annual budgets based on the workplan/cash plan.
• Ensure that all partner’s projects budgets and annual budgets are costed in line with the approved standard unit costs schedules of the organization.
• Facilitate the processes of reviewing and analyzing program/departmental budgets (Budgeted Vs Actual reports) and following up with holder holders on the variance analysis reports together with program staff

Donor Financial reporting and management

• Working with the project team and partners to prepare donor financial reports in line with the donor requirements in a timely manner.
• Support the project teams and partners to fully understand key donor conditions and requirements.
• Taking a lead in responding to all queries from the head office and donors relating to the submitted financial reports.
• Support project teams and partners to fully understand all the financial reporting templates.

Donor Contracts Management

• Taking a lead in managing donor contracts guidelines, requirements, and reporting due dates.
• Ensuring that all partner’s contracts are updated with relevant donor rules and requirements.
• Managing the closure of project/donor contracts by ensuring that all balances relating to the project are well reconciled and closed and making sure that all other donor requirements relating to project closure are complied with.
• Work with project team and partners to ensure that donor budgets are well managed in line with acceptable donor limits.

Management of audits (Partners, donor, and regional offices)

• Plan for timely initiation and completion of project donor audits and ensure that reports produced follow audit requirements of donors.
• Take a lead in coordinating the partner audits by ensuring that partners receive proper guidance on the audit processes
• Provide support to the audits for the regional office and country offices for Stromme Foundation.
• Preparing internal audit plan and ensure that all partners are well reflected in the audit plan and internal audit periodically conducted, sharing internal audit report

Regional Finance and Administration Manager for discussion in the Regional Leadership Team.

• Manage partner’s entry and exit meetings with external auditors, facilitate timely completion of audits by arranging timely submission of annual financial statements.
• Follow up findings in annual audit to make sure issues are worked on and solved.
• Perform accounting and finance management function for both regional and country offices for Stromme Foundation East Africa
• Work with Regional Finance, Admin and HR officer to ensure that the accounting system (Agresso) is timely updated to ensure timely financial reporting and reconciliations
• Post all the adjusting journals relating to salaries, prepayments, accountabilities etc into the accounting system (Agresso)
• Ensure that all staff allocations (staff level of effort) are accurately recorded and posted into the accounting system.
• Review Quarterly month-end closure checklist for the regional office and ensure that all relevant accounts (Bank, payables, receivables, prepayments, and others) are fully reconciled
• With support from Regional Finance and Administration Manager, ensure that Stromme Foundation complies with all applicable compliance requirements (URA, NSSF and FIA)
• Manages all country office bank relations and bank
• account activities including negotiation of fees, interest and currency exchange rates.
• Work with Regional Finance and Admin Manager to ensure high levels of compliance of all internal policies and procedures.
• Overall, be willing to contribute in all other finance tasks where and when needed.

Supervision and Management:

• Supervise and mentor finance staff (Field office Finance staff, ACCA interns) with technical support to Finance staff in Juba office, Tanzania and partner finance staff.
• Regular training of staff on compliance issues and performance
• Identify capacity building needs for finance staff and ensure their participation in relevant training
• Conduct regular training and orientation of non-finance staff on different areas like budgeting, budget Vs actual analysis
• Deputize for RFAM

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The Internal Controller (Finance and Grants) shall have:

• A minimum of first degree in Accounting, Finance and business-related courses and a professional qualification (ACCA/CPA/CMA). A second level degree preferred.
• At least 5-10 years of practical experience gained in INGO set-up, working with partners in financial management, partner management, budget management, donor budgets and reporting.

Skills, abilities, and requirements

• Demonstrated partner capacity building and training skills
• Advanced knowledge and prior experience using grants management system
• Ability to lead and motivate others
• Experience working with donor funded projects
• Ability to build effective relationship with staff, partners, and other stakeholders
• Willingness to travel at least 30% of her/his time within the country and the region (East Africa)
• Excellent analytical approach to work and strong attention to details
• Ability to respectfully train partner and be in position to transform them.
• Committed team player; people and process focused as well ability to work in a matrix structure across the organisation
• Experience in using ERP system
• Outstanding Interpersonal and people skills including achieving results through third parties (partners staff) capacity building, distance management, conflict management etc.
• Excellent writing and communication skills
• Demonstrated computer skills (Proficiency in using computer desktop application MS office.

Reporting lines

The Controller (Finance and Grants) will report to the Regional Finance and Administration Manager and manages Finance field staff and ACCA Interns.

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested applicants who meet the requirements should submit their applications which must include your salary history and salary expectation along with 3 reference contacts including your most recent/previous employer), and daytime contact number to; The Regional Director, Stromme Foundation, Plot 1, Kololo Hill Drive, P.0 Box 27200, Kampala. Or send by email to: recruitmentsea@stromme.org  or recruitmentseastafrica@stromme.org

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification.

Deadline:   Friday 8^th July 2022

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