OSISA is a growing African institution committed to deepening democracy, protecting human rights and enhancing good governance in the region. It‘s vision is to promote and sustain the ideals, values, institutions and practices of open society, with the aim of establishing vibrant and tolerant southern African democracies in which people, free from material and other deprivation, understand their rights and responsibilities and participate actively in all spheres of life.

In pursuance of this vision, OSISA‘s mission is to initiate and support programmes working towards open society ideals and to advocate for these ideals in southern Africa. Established in 1997, OSISA works in 10 southern Africa countries: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. OSISA works differently in each of these ten countries, according to local conditions.

OSISA seeks to recruit for the following key position:Finance Officer

Role Overview

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Senior Finance Officer, the Finance Officer provides leadership in execution of financial services in the organisation ensuring effective and transparent utilization of financial resources and integrity of financial services. The Finance Officer promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with OSISA rules and regulations.

The Finance Officer assists the Senior Finance Officer in supervising and leading the support staff of the Finance Department. The Finance Officer works in close collaboration with the operations programme and project teams in the Country Offices and OSISA HQ staff for resolving complex finance-related issues and information delivery. The Finance Officer will assume a hands-on approach to risk management and provide definitive advice on financial resource for successful implementation of organisational risk management.

The Finance Officer, together with the Senior Finance and Operations Manager and Senior Finance Officer, shall also develop external relationships with appropriate contacts, e.g. auditors, lawyers, bankers and statutory organisations such as Tax Authorities.

Responsibilities

Provision of Grants

• The Finance Officer will assist the Senior Finance Officer in overseeing OSISA’s grantees financial documentation and payments in GMS/Serenic.
• S/he will capture payments to grantees.

Provision of Travel

• The Finance Officer will assist with all supplier and expense accounts including both the travel and forex accounts as required from time to time.

Accounts Payable

• The Finance Officer will assist the Senior Finance Officer to manage and oversee the payments and reconciliation of OSISA’s creditors, travel and advise the Senior Finance Officer when it comes to managing suppliers and amounts owing to suppliers.
• S/he will communicate regularly with all stakeholders on accounts payable, money collection, invoice processing issues, supplier queries and priorities.

Budgeting and Forecasting

• The Finance Officer will assist in the preparation of budget and forecast reports for the Senior Finance Officer on a monthly basis.
• S/he will ensure the review of the cash position to ensure sufficient funds on hand for disbursements.
• S/he will assist with the foundations budgeting process, which involve the preparation and submission of the budget to the budget office to New York in the prescribed format and within the agreed deadline.

General Accounting

• The Finance Officer will assist with overseeing the processing of all transactions and ensure that all entrees are recorded against the appropriate budget category.
• S/he will ensure the accuracy and timeliness of bank and general ledger reconciliations, including the individual grant agreements to the grant control account. Processing intercompany transactions.
• The Finance Officer will ensure that journal vouchers processed are correctly recorded and posted in Grant Management System (GMS)/SERENIC.
• Timely preparation of cost-recovery bills in GMS/SERENIC for the services provided by OSISA and follow up on cost recovery.
• S/he will also assist staff in Johannesburg and the country offices with technical requirements and problems that arises in the course of their duties.
• S/he will be involved in the identification of risks facing the organisation and for identifying and implementing the appropriate interventions and or controls.

Fixed Assets

• The Finance Officer will assist the Senior Finance Officer with oversight of asset counts and the processing and recording of the fixed-assets register.
• S/he will prepare the calculation and recording of deprecation on OSISA’s fixed assets and process transactions of the disposal and acquisitions of assets.
• S/he will also reconcile the fixed asset ledger.

Financial Reporting

• The Finance Officer will produce monthly financial reports reflecting budget versus actual expenditure as well as a variance reports, to OSISA executive and to the finance office in Berlin.
• S/he will submit monthly Trial Balance with reconciliations to SFO.
• He/she will, through the use of financial statements, create management reports on a regular basis that are relevant to decision-making processes, measuring performance against measures and targets (output and outcomes) established during finance management planning, against budget objectives, and/or against financial management performance standards used within the NGO industry.
• The Finance Officer will evaluate and analyse findings and explore options for corrective action.
• The financial officer is responsible for preparing the stand-alone year-end financial.
• These financial statements involve the reconciliation of all the inter country loan accounts
• S/he plays an important role in the year-end audit by assisting with the audit timetable and by dealing and replying to audit queries.

Banking

• The Finance Officer will be responsible for verifying the banking details; they will load the payment and ensure timely payment of suppliers.
• S/he will be responsible for sending bank balances regularly to the Senior Finance Officer and Senior Finance and Operations Manager to ensure there is sufficient cash in the bank accounts.

Payroll

• The Finance Officer will assist Human Resources in providing relevant information for the processing of the payroll and distribution of payments to third parties.
• S/he will also assist the reconciliation of third parties and the calculation of applicable payroll taxes where necessary.
• S/he is responsible for reconciling the monthly payroll to the reports received from service providers.

Treasury

• Assist the Senior Finance and Operations Manager and Senior Finance Officer in ensuring efficient cash management through the monitoring of cash budgets and foreign currencies.

Key Competencies

Detail Orientation, Efficiency, Leading, Good Judgement, Results Focus and Resilience & Composure.

Requirements

• B Com (hons) degree majoring Accounting or equivalent qualification.
• The candidate should have three to five years progressively responsible experience in the finance section of an international or regional NGO.

Interested applicants should forward a one-page cover letter and detailed CV to humanresources@osisa.org with the relevant position as the subject heading.

Closing date for submission is 15 March 2019.

Only shortlisted candidates will receive a response.
OSISA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Building vibrant and tolerant democracies.