View Vacancy - Eastern Neighbourhood Finance and Procurement Officer (GEO23.295)

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Other British Government Departments (Partners across Government, including UK Visas)
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Programme Roles)

The Regional Finance and Procurement Officer will provide support to the Regional Finance and Procurement Manager to ensure high quality financial and procurement services are provided to deliver the UK’s Eastern Neighbourhood programme.  

The £16 million EN Programme operates across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia with support provided from London and through the EN Programme Hub working from the British Embassy Tbilisi.  This position will be part of the EN Programme Hub.  

The EN Programme Hub provides project management expertise to the region, including finance and procurement services and regional programme management to deliver against UK strategic objectives. 

The successful candidate will interact regularly with the Heads of Programmes and Project Officers in the EN countries  and with colleagues in the UK-based Programme, Advisers and Results Group (PARG).

Overall, the Finance and Procurement Officer will provide support to the regional team to:

  • Deliver an efficient and effective financial and procurement service that complies with FCDO rules and drives a reduction in, and robust management of, financial risk and an increase in the delivery of outcomes as a result of a stronger focus on value-for-money.  

The role offers the jobholder an opportunity to be part of a regional team during a period of change that provides new opportunities and challenges to shape how the UK delivers programming in the region.  The jobholder will be able to develop financial and procurement skills and learn how that supports project delivery in support of UK objectives on a range of important issues from peace building to capacity building of civil society and leveraging UK technical assistance for government reform programmes, including on the Women, Peace and Security agenda, where gender is at the heart of our approach. 

Roles and responsibilities:

Finance Support – 55% 

-    Support the Regional Finance and Procurement Manager to manage budgets, ensure accurate profiling and reconcile spend.  This involves data entry on the FCDO’s financial system, reviewing and assessing spend according to offline reporting and ensuring accurate forecasts, working with suppliers and the regional team to ensure the compliance of expenditures against FCDO rules and guidance.  Providing management data to the team on finances.
-    Support the Regional Finance and Procurement Manager at different stages of the project cycle to identify risks and implement mitigation actions. This may include supporting implementers and colleagues to improve the quality of their financial reporting, supporting the financial management aspects of due diligence reports, and conducting assessments and evaluations on financial returns. 
-    Lead on the registering of project details on the FCDO’s financial system including ensuring the allocation of project codes, creating requisitions and purchase orders, and dealing with pre-payment, accruals and receipting requests.
-    Contribute to financial month-end and quarterly reporting, including reporting spend on gender-sensitive projects, by liaising with the London-based Baseline Finance Analyst to ensure reporting is accurate and flag any risks.
-    Lead on the processing of payments, including scrutinising the invoices, preparing payment requests, with all required documentation and ensuring these are processed by the central finance team. 
-    Lead on managing forecasts, by comparing actual figures against forecasts and ensuring that spend is within the budget, escalating issues as necessary.
-    Lead on data management of all financial documents and evidence.
-    Support the team to implement a stronger focus on Value-For-Money and its monitoring and evaluation approach at all stages of the project cycle. 

Procurement and Contractual Support – 25%

-    Support the Regional Finance and Procurement Manager to deliver quality procurements for new commercial projects including supporting the tendering process, facilitating evaluation panels and record-keeping of decisions. 
-    Lead on smaller procurements, acting as the delegated procurement officer.  This will involve ensuring compliance with FCDO procurement rules and working with central commercial colleagues and implementers to ensure the quality of our approach. 
-    Prepare grant agreements and memorandum of understanding (MoUs) in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, including the Senior Programme Manager and/or the Centre for Delivery to resolve queries on clauses.
-    Support the Regional Finance and Procurement Manager to check suppliers’/implementing partners’ activity-based budgets for compliance starting from the design phase throughout the project lifetime.
-    To provide cover for the role of the Regional Finance and Procurement Manager during periods of absence and to support the Manager as required.

Wider support to the team – 15%

-    Personal development and wider support to the team’s resilience (including across the region) - as opportunities arise to work on specific projects or tasks of the wider team, to support effective communications, Monitoring and Evaluation of projects, and responses to crisis where there are gaps in capacity.   An opportunity to gain an understanding of project work where the role can be flexed to the development needs of the job-holder.  
-    Support to attain professional qualifications in finance and procurement (as required).  

Administrative Support for the EN programme – 5%

-    To provide administrative support for the wider EN team, including supporting with arranging events and learning and development opportunities, supporting travel.

  • BSC degree and/or other recognised qualification in finance or business administration and at least 3 years of experience in financial, procurement or administrative work.
  • Previous experience of working with, and supporting, project management.  
  • Experience of working in an international organisation or civil society organisation
  • Good analytical skills and service delivery skills.
  • Strong administrative skills and experience of working in a team.  
  • Knowledge of MS Excel.
  • An interest in developing financial and procurement skills and experience in donor project management.
Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Communicating and Influencing
11 June 2023
Administrative Officer (AO)
Full-time, Permanent
40
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Georgia
Tbilisi
British Embassy
2
GEL
4,337
3 July 2023

This is a full-time, permanent contract, for 5 working days, with working patterns: Monday to Friday (09:00 – 17:00). Hybrid working is permitted, with a minimum of two days per week in the office, providing operational needs are met. There may be occasional UK/EN regional travel required. 

The gross monthly salary is 4,337 GEL. Please note that staff members are responsible for paying any income tax and state pension contributions required by local law.

Learning and development opportunities: Mandatory learning and development courses must be completed in line with guidance.  The CSSF Programme Management course should be completed within six months of start date.  There will be opportunities for regional learning and development activities.  A broader range of professional programme management qualifications can be pursued and supported. The role will also offer core competence development opportunities. 

All staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Georgia are subject to Georgian employment law as well as the relevant internal regulations in force.

All applicants must have the right to live and work in Georgia. The British Embassy does not sponsor work permits. The successful candidate will be subject to a professional background and security clearance.

The Embassy will not consider applications from existing staff who have not successfully completed their probation period or, in the case of staff on temporary contract who have not yet completed two thirds of their contract.

Visa/Passport requirements: Candidates must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Georgia and take responsibility to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract.

Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 (Georgia time) on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application, since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Please be advised that the British Embassy will not be able to meet the travel costs incurred when travelling to the interview, nor the costs connected with relocation if offered the position. 

Candidates selected for interview will be interviewed in English, and the panel will make a note of your level of fluency and clarity of communication during the interview.

*For more information on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment levels please click on the following link CEFR.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.