CALL FOR APPLICATIONS : Administrative, Financial and Accounting Manager (AFAM)

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

UNIT: Project Coordination and Management Unit (PCMU)

“Regional Hub on Climate Action Transparency for Central African States

POSITION : Administrative, Financial and Accounting Manager (AFAM)

REFERENCE : 03_2022/HuRTAC/DERNADR/CEEAC

LOCATION: Douala – Cameroon

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Full-time individual performance contract

DURATION: 1 year fixed-term contract (renewable)

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 15 /04/2023

START DATE: 15/05/2023

Terms of reference

1. SPECIFIC CONTEXT AND RATIONALE :

The Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is the executive body of the regional economic integration instrument in Central Africa. Its constitutive treaty of 18 October 1983 was the subject of a revision signed on 18 December 2019 and ratified to date by all 11 countries of the sub-region. It covers all the activities of public institutions, private companies, civil society and the populations of the region in a dynamic and integral perspective based on five pillars: peace and security; the common market; the environment and natural resources; regional planning and infrastructure; gender and human development. Economic growth, social well-being and the preservation of nature are built through the regional integration that ECCAS is developing among its eleven member countries.

Humanity is facing one of the crucial challenges of the present times, namely climate change and the degradation of the earth’s resources, which threaten the human living environment and undermine the economic development efforts of countries, especially those of the developing world.

To address this crisis, under the aegis of the United Nations, three major environmental conventions were adopted in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to which all ECCAS member states^[1] have adhered. Each of these States is committed to its implementation. In view of the ever-increasing threats and in order to strengthen climate action, the parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015, which unlike the Kyoto Protocol, is binding on all parties that commit to it, through a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is due to be renewed and made more ambitious every five years. This was the exercise that all the countries of Central Africa had just carried out

Aware that the implementation of the NDCs implies profound changes for our economies which must take low-carbon development trajectories and aware of the difficulties that ECCAS member states are enduring in the implementation of the existing Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework under the UNFCCC and which must now face more requirements linked to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, With a strengthened Transparency Framework under the UNFCCC, the ECCAS Commission has obtained resources from the Climate Action Transparency Initiative (CATI), administered by UNOPS, for the creation of a Regional Climate Action Transparency Hub (ReCATH) for Central African States, with a view to assisting Member States in the establishment of comprehensive and sustainable MRV systems and to encourage the exchange of experiences among States. Its objectives are to :

1. Create a centre of expertise for climate action transparency

2. Assess the needs and priorities of each country

3. Building capacity in the Congo Basin

4. Create a network of national experts and officials

5. Disseminate tools and guidelines to support transparency

6. Supporting resource mobilisation

This Hub is a collaborative approach involving the Congo Basin countries and various institutions and technical and financial partners supporting Climate Action Transparency.

For the management of this new initiative in Central Africa, the ECCAS Commission has created a Hub Coordination and Management Unit based at the CAPC-AC in Douala, Cameroon. As part of the staffing of this Unit, the recruitment of a Administrative, Financial and Accounting Manager (AFAM) is planned.

In this regard, the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States invites motivated nationals from ECCAS member states to apply for the position of Administrative, Financial and Accounting Manager (AFAM).

2. OBJECTIVE :

The objective is to ensure that the financial and accounting management of projects is in line with the Hub’s objectives, in accordance with best practice and, above all, with the contractual requirements and conditions specified in the funding agreements.

3. MISSION :

The consultant is responsible for the administrative, financial and accounting management of the projects entrusted to him/her, in accordance with the procedures of the various donors and the administrative, financial and accounting procedures manuals. To this end, he/she must :

• Contribute to the implementation and ensure the proper functioning of the Hub’s financial, accounting and administrative monitoring system with the production of financial monitoring reports according to the requirements of each donor within the given deadlines and according to the specifications of the grant/loan agreements;
• Oversee the general, analytical and budgetary accounting of projects;
• Ensure compliance with the provisions of the administrative, financial and accounting procedures manuals;
• Contribute to the revision of the administrative, financial and accounting procedures manual;
• Contribute to maintaining an acceptable disbursement rate;
• Ensuring acceptable results from the financial and accounting audit of the Projects.

He/she will work in direct and close collaboration with the Accounting Officer of the ECCAS Commission, in order to ensure that the accounting of the project integrates the accounting plan of the Commission.

4. DETAILS OF THE MISSION :

Under the supervision of the Hub Coordinator, he/she is responsible for the coordination and control of the administrative, financial and accounting activities of the hub and ensures the implementation of the annual budgets and follows the annual procurement and disbursement plans.

In this capacity, he (she) carries out the following activities

• Coordination of the Hub’s activities on administrative, logistical, financial and accounting aspects and monitoring and control of their performance;
• Preparation of payment and/or reimbursement claims ;
• Supervision of all accounting work with materialization of controls;
• Development of the annual work plan disbursement plan ;
• Preparation of monthly budget execution reports (commitments, disbursements and cash flow) with reference to the forecasts;
• Preparation of financial monitoring reports and financial statements for the various projects;
• Preparation of financial reports on project implementation every six (6) months, including disbursements made on the previous payment and any unspent cash balance from the previous quarterly period, to be submitted to the Donor;
• Preparing the necessary files for external accounting, budgetary and financial audits and implementing the measures recommended by the auditors;
• Manage, monitor and maintain the personnel file;
• Drafting, following up correspondence and preparing replies to routine correspondence and other communications.
• Contributes to the implementation of the recommendations issued by the external auditors, the Project Steering Committee and the supervision missions of the different donors; 
• Monitoring the implementation of project contracts ;
• Control of disbursement plans,
• Follow-up of the replenishment requests of the Designated Account of each Project according to the provisions of the manual;
• Cash flow control of the projects concerned;
• Analysis of disbursement reports and adoption of appropriate measures to meet the deadlines contained therein;
• Monitoring the financial and budgetary implementation of projects;
• Monitoring the implementation of recommendations issued by the external auditors ;
• Monitoring the application of the project’s Administrative, Budgetary, Financial and Accounting Procedures Manuals.
• Organise travel and meeting logistics for Hub-related regional meetings and activities.
• Maintains files (paper and electronic) and databases.

5. CANDIDATE PROFILE:

The candidate for the position of Administrative and Financial Manager of the Hub must have a specialised training in Accounting/Management and secretarial skills, meeting the following criteria and references

• Hold at least a higher diploma in accounting and/or management at BAC+4 level (DECF, Master’s degree in accounting and finance or equivalent diplomas in management, accounting, finance or auditing, etc.), supplemented by secretarial/management assistant training or experience;
• Successful professional experience in a similar position of at least 3 years, preferably in projects funded by international donors;
• Have a good knowledge of the financial management mechanisms of development projects;
• Experience in the use of standard office software (Word, Excel, Email, Power point, Access) and a perfect command of at least two accounting and financial management software;
• Ability and predisposition to work in a multicultural team
• Female applicants strongly encouraged

6. PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
7. Produce satisfactory financial monitoring reports;
8. Submit satisfactory requests for funding;
9. No unjustified suspense in third-party accounts ;
10. Submit audit reports on time;
11. Submit disbursement tracking statics on time;
12. Inventory reports drawn up on 30 January of each year;
13. Annual financial statements prepared by 28 February of each year;
14. Invoices paid on time ;
15. No ineligible expenditure.

• LANGUAGES

● A working knowledge of French and English is essential.

● Knowledge of another language (Spanish, Portuguese) is desirable.

Motivated candidates are invited to submit their application (in the first instance): CV (with three references) + cover letter to the ECCAS Commission President,

 to the following email addresshubclimat@ceeac_eccas.org with copy to recath_eccas@yahoo.com

No later than April 15, 2023

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[1] Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, CAR, DRC, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Chad,