Finance and Administrative Officer

MSI is a key partner in the Quality Instruction Towards Access and Basic education Improvement (QITABI)-2 Project, which is led by World Learning. QITABI-2 combines a crisis response and development approach to expand equitable access to education and improve learning outcomes for children. MSI will collect and analyze data on students’ performance levels in reading, writing, math and social emotional learning (SEL) in grades 1 to 6 in Arabic, French and English; develop performance benchmarks in reading, writing and math; conduct surveys and observations of teachers’ instructional knowledge and practices; and design and implement a comprehensive capacity building plan for CERD and DOPS in national assessment and data for decision-making.

Position Summary

The Finance and Administrative Officer is responsible for managing overall accounting and financial control systems, for ensuring that adequate and appropriate internal controls are in place to meet generally recognized accounting standards, MSI’s Financial Systems and Procedures and for providing administrative support to the MSI technical team. The Finance and Administrative Officer will manage all bookkeeping, bank accounts and cash flow to ensure sufficient funds are available for effective and efficient implementation.

Responsibilities

Manage office functions, financial reporting, bookkeeping, projections, payroll and petty cash.

Maintain and update accounting and financial systems in accordance with U.S government regulations (expense are reasonable, allowable and allocable), Tetra Tech/MSI policies and donor regulations, under the overall supervision of the Project Manager in Home Office.

Manage the preparation and submission of monthly expenditure reports, ensuing that they are accurate, complete and submitted to MSI HQ and in a timely manner.

Prepare monthly cash flow and projections for fund request. Ensure the monthly fund requests are accurate, complete and submitted to MSI HQ in timely manner.

Assist in payroll processing for local staff and ensure that staff is paid accurately and in timely manner.

Compliance to the local laws i.e. Income Tax Rules and any other applicable rule.

Compliance to the donor regulations in processing financial transaction.

Ensure that vendors are paid timely and accurately.

Ensure that transactions are appropriately recorded in a computerized accounting system and ensure MSI accounting and procurement standards, procedures and policies are followed and implemented.

Develop a plan to monitor all project-related expenses and ensure monthly tracking of expenses.

Design and manage robust internal financial controls.

Handle any audit queries.

Ensure all financial reconciliations are done on a monthly basis. This includes but not limited to account receivables, account payables, bank reconciliations, cash reconciliations, etc.

Ensure regular data backup, archiving of the accounting record by weekly scanning and uploading on Egnyte and monthly dispatch of original records to MSI-HQ.

Other accounting, financial management tasks consistent with the overall scope of this position.

Provide non-supervisory administrative support to the technical field team.

Organize logistical and administrative arrangements for meetings and workshops.

Provide administrative and logistical support to the technical team during assessment and data collection activities.

Assist the technical team in preparing the necessary equipment and material for data collection activities, meetings and workshops.

Support the technical team in monitoring data collection activities, meetings and workshops by documenting attendance, drafting meeting notes, completing tracking sheets and other documentation as required.

Conduct field visits, when needed, to support the technical team during the data collection activities

Ensure administrative tasks for all support personnel are completed in accordance with guidance from QITABI 2 project management.

Qualifications

The Finance and Administrative Officer should have five years of experience

A bachelor’s degree in international development, accounting, or other relevant field

Demonstrable knowledge of U.S. government contract management and financial systems

Demonstrated experience overseeing logistics in development contexts

Previous experience working on USAID funded projects is a must

Proficiency and experience using MS Excel and QuickBooks

Ability to work collaboratively with multiple partners and vendors

Proficiency in written and spoken Arabic and English is a must