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Job Title:  Director of Finance and Administration

Organisation: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP)

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

Reports to:    Chief of Party

About Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs:

At Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), we believe in the power of communication to save lives, by empowering people to adopt healthy behaviors for themselves, their families and their communities. Good health is critical not only to an individual’s well-being, but also to community and national development, impacting educational and economic success. With projects in more than 40 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America along with work in our hometown of Baltimore, CCP’s portfolio spans the globe.

CCP is a leader in strategic communication and research that facilitates access to information and exchange of knowledge to improve health.  CCP has more than 60 projects that employ staff in more than 40 countries around the world.  CCP has unparalleled experience as a global center for Social and Behavioral Change excellence.  Through its projects, CCP harnesses the power of social and behavior change communication to encourage the adoption of healthy behaviors in the projects implemented worldwide.

About USAID Project:

The Social and Behavioral Change Activity (SBCA) is a five-year program implemented through a cooperative agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Uganda) and CCP. The vision of USAID’s Social and Behavioral Change Activity is a Uganda where individuals and communities are not just healthy, but resilient, supported by strong adaptable systems and institutions to lead productive lives.

The SBC Activity supports the Government of Uganda (GOU) and US Government (USG) implementing partners to design and implement SBC initiatives that contribute towards reduction in maternal and child mortality, malaria prevalence, total fertility rate, new HIV infections, TB prevalence and improved nutrition outcomes, resilience and improved SBC systems and expertise.

Job Summary:  The Director of Finance and Administration (DFA) is the primary financial officer of the program. The DFA will:

• Ensure that financial functions support the timely and effective implementation of the program’s technical scope of work. This includes ensuring all financial transactions are complete, accurate, timely, adequate, and appropriate.
• Ensure that resources are allocated and used in compliance with award requirements, JHU policy, and applicable USG regulations.
• Ensure compliance with Ugandan law, including timely submission of all tax and benefits paperwork.
• Be responsible for comprehensive financial, operations, and administrative oversight for the SBCA project.
• Support other project partners to ensure financial compliance.
• Be the link between the Chief of Party, various project departments and staff and the project’s Sr. Grants and Contracts Analyst (Baltimore) in terms of meeting financial and logistic requirements for managing the project office and all field programs.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:  

Oversight and development of financial systems and tools

• Provide guidance on CCP finance and operational policies and procedures where applicable.
• Through the process of supporting document reviews, ensure the completeness, accuracy, timeliness, adequacy, and appropriateness of all financial transactions and related support i.e., ensure all financial transactions meet audit standards.
• Immediately inform, guide and request revision to supporting documents that do not meet donor, JHU, or audit requirement (e.g., incomplete, or inaccurate forms, missing support, illegible photocopies, missing printed names, signatures, dates, etc.).
• Participate in the annual workplan budgeting process by drafting the country-level budget and justification to update staff and salary information, reviewing historical expenses to forecast future expenditures, and reviewing and incorporating program activity budgets.
• Work with the Sr. Grants and Contracts Analyst (Sr. GCA) to align country-level workplan budget with SBCA’s overall program budget.
• After approval of the workplan budget, ensure that the country-level budget is coded, codes disseminated to country teams and Sr. GCA, and relevant operational forms updated with the annual codes.
• Create and maintain a country-level budget tracker to work with the project’s overall tracker for CCP’s monthly reconciliation process and to facilitate the quarterly reporting process to the donor.
• Review the monthly QuickBooks transaction detail to ensure expenses are coded appropriately with activity codes and general ledger codes to align with the country-level budget tracker.
• Work with the Sr. GCA to align country-level tracker with SBCA’s overall project tracker.
• Work with the Sr. GCA on the compilation of country-level information for routine and ad hoc project reports and data entry into PEPFAR system interfaces.
• Provide resource guidance for SBCA’s subrecipients located in Uganda.
• Routinely review the project’s asset register and just-in-time consumables inventory worksheets to ensure timely and accurate updates are being made.
• Conduct routine and ad hoc physical inventory verifications and document the process.
• Review fleet management supporting documents to ensure proper accounting and use of project vehicles including a review of each vehicle’s tracking report.
• Conduct ad hoc petty cash counts/reconciliations and document the process.
• Conduct an annual ethics and conflict of interest training to include topics of fraud, waste, and abuse. Document this meeting for the files.
• Conduct routine staff trainings on topics covering diverse topics in Finance and Administration to improve the quality and efficiency of processing submitted documents.
• Review the annual and quarterly VAT reports and provide feedback or guidance if necessary.
• Listen, understand, and help staff navigate unusual or hairy situations to ensure compliance with University or donor policies and regulations.
• Assist non-finance staff to prepare adequate justifications to support budgets and transactions.
• Orient travellers on correct and appropriate travel policies and procedures before taking advances.
• Through the review of the monthly QuickBooks transactions, follow-up on and escalate, when necessary, outstanding advances for program activity or travel ensuring adherence to organizational policies and procedures.
• Maintain and communicate to staff on appropriate allocations for shared office costs based on space and effort.
• Make field visits as necessary to provide support, verify, and document verifications of transactions as required.
• Follow appropriate protocol for reporting suspected internal controls violations.

Staff supervision responsibilities

• Manage the work of direct reports and provide supervisory responsibilities.
• Promote staff development through training, counselling, and performance evaluation of the staff of SBCA your supervision.
• Ensure that direct reports are implementing duties as assigned.
• Conduct timely annual performance reviews for direct reports.
• Manage performance of direct reports timely and in a way that facilitates growth and improvement in accordance with CCP Baltimore Human Resource guidance.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The ideal candidate must hold a Bachelor’s of commerce finance, business administration, or related field. Masters degree in accounting, business administration, or a related field is an added bonus.
• Membership of ACCA, CPA (U) and CMA is a bonus; part-qualified or equivalent will also be considered.
• At least 10 years professional work experience in accounting, business administration, or a related field. Senior level experience in managing the administration and finance aspects of US donor-funded programs is a bonus.
• At least 10 years’ experience in financial management of donor-funded programs of similar size and scope of SBCA. Experience working on USAID-funded projects are a bonus.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to work in a team-oriented environment.
• Ability to work well with others.
• Knowledge of.
• Working knowledge of the 2 CFR 200/700 and of other U.S. Government cost principles, rules, and regulations is required.
• Exceptional computer skills, particularly in Microsoft Excel, and experience using commercially available accounting software programs. Experience using QuickBooks is a bonus.
• Ability to apply mathematical concepts that include but are not limited to algebra, probability, statistics, and numerical analysis.
• Ability to work independently in a high profile, fast-paced and multi tasked environment.
• Ability to communicate effectively in English, both verbally and in writing.

How to Apply:

All candidates are encouraged to submit e-mail applications to jobs@jhccpug.org with copies of current CV, cover letter and three professional referees. Please indicate which position you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

Deadline: 16^th December 2021 by 5:00pm

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