Grants and Finance Officer

Job Description

Employment Opportunity – Contingent upon funding.

Pact Ethiopia is a field office of “Pact” an international non-governmental and non-profit making organization with its headquarters in Washington DC. Pact Ethiopia exists to build local capacity to enable systematic solutions that allow those who are poor and marginalized to earn a dignified living, be healthy and enjoy the benefit nature provides. For efficient execution of its duties, Pact Ethiopia is looking for an enthusiastic, creative, energetic individual to fill the following position for its 5-year, USAID-funded program, Sustainable Peace Activity.

Overview:

The Grants and Contract Officer is responsible to assist the senior Grant and Contract officer in the day-to-day process of the grant management from the inception to the close out process of the contract and grant making process. That means the Grants and contract Officer assists the Senior Contract and Grant officer in planning, organizing, coordinating, monitoring and reporting all Subcontracts and Grants. She/he also provides capacity building and technical support to sub-contractors and sub grantees. S/He Supports all approved activities reports preparation and provide to stakeholders.

He/she is also required to play important role in monthly closing and reporting to DC; provide technical support to program staffs in the effective use of financial reports in project monitoring.

S/he will be responsible to make sure that the funds made available to partner organizations under this project are utilized efficiently and effectively within the approved implementation period meeting all the required rules and regulations, both at the donor and Pact level.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities:
Job Responsibility #1. Pre-Award

Work with Pact project managers and officers to select subcontractors/grantees for award under the specific project. This will include the conduct of pre-award assessments to determine the responsibility of prospective subcontractors/ sub grantees using an appropriate tool.
Communicate the findings of the pre-award survey to the partner organization officially taking into account the comments of the Senior Contract and Grant officer regarding the outcome of the survey. This task is accompanied by an official request to the grantee to come up with a generation of an ‘Improvement Plan Matrix”. The grants and contract officer will, then, monitor progressively throughout the life of the subcontract and sub-agreement to make sure that the subcontractor, and grantee has addressed the gaps identified during the pre-award survey.
In addition to pre-award assessments, the Grants and Contract officer will be involved highly in the process during the pre-award part of the grant making process.

Job Responsibility #2 Post-Award

Provide technical assistance to staff and Subcontractors and grantees on administrative policies and procedures for contract and grants management.
Provide budget clearance with tracking codes to each financial requests of response activities initiated. Check budget availability and make sure the charge will be done according to the given tracking codes.
Review cash advance request against original budget amount of the Sub grantees and process the request accordingly. This task includes verification of activities and budget in accordance with original agreement.
Verify obligated funding available and data reported in the subgrant matrix for each subcontractor/grantee. This task includes a monthly reconciliation of figures captured in finance and grant units and accounting of the differences accordingly.
Update the program people on regular basis, monthly, regarding the status of the financial performance of the subcontractors/grantees. Hence, the Grant and Contract officer has a role in advising the program people to think of obligating, if there is excess cash acquired from exchange rate gain, or de-obligate the dollar figure of the approved budget if no more additional activities are thought to be implemented.
Maintain individual Trackers for each individual contract/grant to verify spending against the approved budget. The Grants, Contract and Finance officer should closely work with the Grants, Contract and Finance Officer to get the financial performance of the implementing partner. She/he should check the financial performance versus the programmatic performance as captured by the regular reports of the partner organizations.
Assist the Senior Grants and Contract officer in his/her endeavor to work with G&C/DC team to obtain prior approvals and waivers from partners required for administration of specific contract and grants.
Plan and monitor partner organizations to confirm that they are in compliance with special award conditions.
Routinely monitor the maintenance and control of the archive of contracts and grants. This is very critical and the Grant and Contract officer should maintain sub-grant file for each grantee as per the guideline given by the Finance Manager.
Prepare modification of agreements whenever there is additional obligation/de-obligation, time extension, change in program description, etc. The Grants Contract and Finance officer should make sure that all the necessary documentations are in place, including the memorandum of negotiation, before preparing modification and submitting to approvals.
Actively gets involved in the close out process of the Subcontract and Subgrant. The Grants and Contract Officer facilitates the close out process for each Subcontractor /Subgrantee as far as the implementation time of the respective subcontract/sub-grant agreement ends. The process includes, at a minimum, the reconciliation of financial information captured in finance and grant unit, the collection of final narrative and financial reports, the collection of property disposition plan and the instruction there of, etc.

Job Responsibility #3 Procurement Under Grants

Prepare RFP, RFA and other instruments for competitive selection processes.
Prepare and/or review documentation (selection, choice of instrument) of purchase orders and contracts financed under contract.
Verify obligated funding available for purchase orders and contracts. The Grants Officer should make sure that there is a Subcontract to which such procurement will be attached.
Verify completion and payment of final invoice. In this regard, the Grants and finance officer should work with the finance unit to ensure that expenses in relation to the procurements are properly coded to the right Subaward.

Job Responsibility #4 Financial Management

Review IP’s Document, supporting journal voucher transaction and journalize before recording.
Follow up the timely clearance of Sub awardee account receivable.
Follow up the timely and accurate VAT claim report are submitted to USAID.
Make sure that the grant related files reflect high professional standard.
Facilitate participant perdiem payment.
Ensure that the ledger balance of sub-grant receivable is reconciled with the balance of Sub-grant Management System
Ensure that aging of receivables report (open vendor invoices); follow up account receivables (travel advance, work advances, consultant advances, etc.) for timely settlements and to avoid long outstanding advances; contact/inform staffs for timely settlements.
Coordinate and follow up the timely submission of audit confirmations from sub grantees; reconcile differences for timely corrections.
Prepare audit confirmation letters for sub grantees requests; send (email, fax, etc.) audit confirmations to designated audit firms; reconcile on differences, if any.
Provide IP’s financial documents for audits and ensure proper return of financial documents to their original place.

Job Responsibility #6 Training and other Technical Assistant

Assist in contributing to the development and delivery of training in contracts and grants management.
Co-facilitate subcontract and sub-grant management trainings.
Assist the Senior Grant and  Contract officer in his/her endeavor to support New Business Development, especially through the review and development of an appropriate Subaward plan and budget.

Reports to:Senior Grant and Contract officer

Supervises: None

Duty Station: Addis Ababa with possibility of frequent field travel.

Job Requirements

Qualifications:

Knowledge of USG and other donor regulations applicable to contract and grants administration.
Good at performing financial reviews and other forms of quantitative analyses.
Effective written and oral communications skills that is essential to building relationships with donors and partner organizations.
Ability to exercise sound business judgment to wisely prioritize and successfully perform multiple and complex tasks.
Highly organized and able to develop and streamline systems for efficient conduct of day-to-day tasks.
Proficiency in word processing, spreadsheets and database skills.
Ability and willingness to frequent field visits.

Education and Experience Requirements: 

Bachelors degree/MA in a related business field (Accounting, Business Administration or Economics)
Minimum of 7/5 years of relevant work experience in the area of grant and contract management.

WORKING CONDITIONS AND LEVEL OF TRAVEL REQUIRED

This position is located in Addis Ababa as indicated above, with frequent field travel to various partners’ operation sites.

Interested applicants fulfilling the requirements are invited to send their application letter and CV to  adebebe@pactworld.org or Pact Ethiopia Office Address indicating Grant and Contract Officer in the subject.
 
Your application letter must include the following information
Name of the position you have applied for
Summary of your qualifications & experience and how it can fit this vacancy in one PDF
 
Deadline for application: April 12, 2023.
Applications received after the closing date will not be considered and only those candidates that are short listed for interviews will be notified.
Address:  Yeka Sub City, Gurd Shola Area, Woreda 9, house No. New, Elfora Agro Industry plc 6th floor. For further information please call by the following numbers 011661-6244/0116616939.