Project Accountant job at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), 2024

Overview

Job Title: Project Accountant

Answers to: Manager of Finance Deputy.
The place is Mbeya.
Pay Grade: 8.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

 

Background of CRS

The recognized worldwide humanitarian organization representing the Catholic community in the US is called Catholic Relief Services. CRS works without respect to nationality, color, or religion to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries. Through programs in emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peace-building, CRS carries out its relief and development efforts. People of all faiths and secular traditions who share our beliefs and our dedication to helping those in need are invited to join our staff and work with us as partners.

Background of the Country:

In Tanzania, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) collaborates closely with local churches and secular partners to execute initiatives. Since 1962, CRS has worked in Tanzania to enhance the lives of impoverished and vulnerable families through programs related to WASH, agriculture, health, and microfinance, as well as orphans and vulnerable children.

Summary of Work:

In order to support high-quality programs serving the underprivileged and vulnerable, you will assist in coordinating and helping to implement donor policies and procedures in accordance with CRS’s established accounting standards, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), donors’ rules and regulations, and legal requirements. By gathering, examining, and validating account information, creating account entries, and providing financial reporting services during the course of the project life cycles, you will effectively carry out accounting services through documenting the grant financial transactions.

Workplace Duties:

• Establish and enforce good accounting practices and financial reporting guidelines in accordance with accepted standards for partners and sub-recipients. Make sure that all the data needed to perform financial transactions for designated accounts in financial accounting systems is set up and kept up to date.
• Before processing financial transactions, make sure all necessary paperwork is correct, comprehensive, and authorized. Review and confirm supporting documentation.
• Document financial transactions after obtaining the necessary permissions.
• Examine and evaluate several accounts in order to find any anomalies. Provide guidance on remedial measures and, if required, create amending entries and modifications.
• In compliance with policy, assess, analyze, and oversee sub-recipient financial management procedures. Additionally, enhance partner competency in financial accounting and transactions.
• Keep an eye on the receipt and disbursement schedules, notify the appropriate project personnel when payments or liquidations are due, and conduct follow-up and communication in a way that promotes timely financial resource management and deadline compliance.
• In order to aid project staff in making decisions, prepare a variety of periodic and ad hoc financial reports and carry out variance analysis. Help maintain the budget so that financial resources are managed appropriately.
• Give training and other capacity-building initiatives, as well as information on financial accounting regulations and procedural compliance problems, to partners, sub-recipients, and project staff.
• Financial management of grants and projects, including testing, applying, producing and analyzing accounting records; importing costs from many sources; reviewing imported costs; confirming funds available for expenditures; creating manual expenditures; reviewing and revising expenditures
• Analyze supply chain costs, keep an eye on inventory valuation, make necessary adjustments, and transfer costs to the finance sub-ledger.
• Close of the supply chain month-end period.

Typical Qualifications, Experience, and Background:

Knowledge and Expertise:

• A degree in finance, accounting, economics, or business administration along with accounting studies, or an accounting certification (CPA/ACCA or similar).
• A minimum of two years’ experience in a comparable role, ideally with a financial or banking institution, an international or local NGO, or both.
• It is preferable to be familiar with the pertinent public donor requirements.
• Competent with web conferencing software and MS Office products (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Visio). It is preferred to have knowledge of the Oracle financial accounting system or a comparable financial reporting program.

Individual Capabilities:

• Outstanding analytical abilities, including the capacity to recognize and document discrepancies.
• Meticulous, precise, and accurate with a keen eye for detail
• Moral behavior in compliance with established professional and organizational standards of ethics
• Proactive, creative, focused on finding solutions, and results-driven.
• The capacity for teamwork.

Required or Desired Foreign Language:

• English proficiency.
• Ability and willingness to travel to project sites for a minimum of 50% of the time is required.

Important Working Connections:

Supervisory: None
Internal: Program Officers-LEAD, Chief of Party, and Finance Staff
External: Field auditors, partner banks, local partners, and other domestic and foreign organizations (donors, for example).

Agency-wide Proficiencies (for every employee of CRS):

Each employee uses these, which have their roots in CRS’s mission, values, and guiding principles, to carry out their duties and produce the intended outcomes.

• Honesty
• Innovation & Constant Improvement
• Creates Bonds
• Enhances Skill and a Strategic Perspective
• Responsibility & Guardianship

Notice: The skill, effort, tasks, and obligations that come with the job are not all included in this job description.

Our dedication to preventing abuse and exploitation of children and vulnerable adults is reflected in CRS’s personnel acquisition processes.

HOW TO APPLY:

Prior to May 15, 2024, interested and qualified individuals should send their resume and cover letter in Word or PDF format, summarizing their experience and suitability for the post, to the email address TZ_HR@crs.org.
In the email subject line, candidates should explicitly mention the job title they are applying for.

Only those who have been shortlisted will be contacted.

CRS is an Employer of Equal Opportunity.

Applications from women, individuals with disabilities, and those from other acknowledged marginalized backgrounds are highly welcomed for this role. CRS Tanzania is aware that many people lack access to higher education, have restricted travel opportunities, take professional pauses to care for their families, and that there are some companies that restrict physical access for those with disabilities, especially those in the field. CRS Tanzania employs a competency-based selection procedure for all recruitments. This makes sure that a candidate’s competencies and prior experience are evaluated even if they don’t have a college degree or a lot of work experience.