Programme Management Office (PRMO) – Senior Officer(Grants and Contracts)

Duration: 4 months

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Summary of key responsibilities:

Grant management

• Prepare and review grant awards requests, draft grant agreements and subsequent amendments, using the approved templates ensuring that all agreements and amendments are constructed and issued in line with UNOPS legal and financial rules and regulations;
• Review grant budgets, and financial reports against approved budgets, to provide critical feedback to the implementing partners, programme unit, grants units, and supervisor, if necessary;
• Monitor budgets in grant proposals and verify their consistency with prevailing market rate; assist in discussion/negotiation of costs/fees as required;
• Verify reporting requirements are adhered to and ensure teams liaise closely with the Program and M&E teams and the supervisor on any delays or other difficulties;
• Review payment requests and ensure payments are processed based upon the grant agreement. agreed payment schedules, and fund availability;
• Support the Finance Officer in budgeting and forecasting of grant related expenditures; ensure variances are communicated at an early stage;
• Communicate with and provide guidance/advice to implementing partners on grant-related and financial matters, in collaboration with the Fund Program unit and the PMO Finance team;
• Resolve operational and process issues related to grant management, and refer complex issues to the supervisor with recommendations for courses of action;
• Coordinate the process of operational and financial closure of grants and projects;
• Contributing to the coordination and follow up on the audits of Implementing Partners;
• Highlight risks and delays to the supervisor and team as appropriate.

Capacity assessment and Capacity building

• Conduct Due Diligence Assessments (DDAs) of the IPs, and manage follow-up actions identified in the assessment reports;
• Organize and support IP capacity development and training in financial and organisational management;
• Provide day-to-day help and guidance to the IPs and coordinate with Program Unit to ensure IP understanding of, and compliance with fund’s operational guidelines, terms and conditions of the grant agreement, and UNOPS requirements;
• Actively liaising with other MMOC grants teams to align to the extent possible IP capacity development efforts as well as streamlining and harmonizing of practices and tools within UNOPS MMOC;
• Actively compiling lessons learned and best practices, and sharing knowledge and best practices within the FMO and with IPs, on financial and organizational management;
• Provide guidance to and share knowledge with the other members of the Grants and Contracts team to improve the overall team’s coherence and competency;
• Work closely with PMO in its maturity improvement journey as per the Risk Based Performance Assessment roadmap, particularly on grants management aspect;
• Contribute to knowledge management initiatives at UNOPS related to grants management, including to other offices as part of Asia Centre for Fund Management.

Documentation

• Monitor information related to contractual arrangements – on audits, inventories, utilization and all such elements in the contracts and grants;
• Ensure that all records are collected and maintained, both hard copies and electronic copies for easy reference and retrieval;
• Maintain a database/archive of all grant related information and documentation of all the implementing partners of the Fund;
• Ensure google data studio dashboards are updated regularly, when applicable;
• Keep the supervisor updated on progress and issues, and prepare timely briefing materials and reports as requested;
• Other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor.

You may find more information at https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=21097

Requirements

Education:

• Advanced University degree – (Master’s degree or equivalent) in administration, development studies, economics, project management, finance or an equivalent degree in related fields is required.

• Bachelor degree in related discipline in combination with additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Work Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years of experience in contracts/grant management and/or project administration/support functions (finance, operations) is required.

• Previous experience with, and a good knowledge of the development and humanitarian sector/working with UN, Donors, NGOs is an advantage.

• Additional experience of project support functions (finance, human resources, procurement & logistics) is an advantage.

• Thorough knowledge of UN rules and procedures in budget or grant management and contracting is highly desirable.

• Demonstrated ability to conduct financial and budget analysis is strongly desirable.

• Prior experience with UNOPS is an advantage.

• Prior experience in Myanmar/Asia is an advantage.

• PRINCE2 foundation certification is an advantage.

Language Requirement:

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.

• Knowledge of another official UNOPS language is an asset.