Administrative assistant, G-6

Background

Vacancy Announcement Number: 11/132
Post Number: 519027
Department/Service: UNISDR
Estimated start date: 16 January 2012

Appointment is on a local basis. The internal and external candidates under serious consideration will be required to pass the UN Administrative Support Assessment Test (ASAT).
United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity.
Candidates will be expected to move periodically to new functions throughout their careers and are subject to the assignment by the Secretary-General to any of the activities or offices of the United Nations.

Summary of duties

This post is located in Resource Management Section of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction secretariat (UNISDR). Under the supervision of the Budget & Finance Officer, the incumbent will:

- Assist on a regular basis in the preparation and development of the UNISDR budget; assist in monitoring budget/work programme with respect to various budgets, trust funds, grants and suggest and implement reallocations of resources as necessary.
- Prepare Financial reports to donors; Prepare or customize financial reports from IMIS system (IT United Nations system) generated reports; coordinate with other finance and budget staff on related issues during preparation of budget reports; collect data from relevant databases (IMIS) and prepare customized financial reports to monitor expenditures against budgets to ensure they remain within the authorized budgetary limits, identify and investigate over expenditures, suggest and take corrective action by initiating budget revisions and enable redeployments as necessary.
- Assist in monitoring the budget, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules; assist in the preparation and finalization of budget performance submissions, assisting substantive sections in retrieval of information from IMIS and advise on ways to resolve problems.
- Review and verify budget documents submitted by regional offices; propose resource allocation from various funding sources to ensure accuracy and conformity with Financial Regulations and Rules of the UN; monitor budget implementation/expenditures and recommend reallocation of funds as necessary.
- Review requisitions for goods and services to ensure correct objects of expenditure have been charged, and availability of funds; monitor extra-budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.
- Assist in finalization of budget performance reports, analysing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures; coordinate extensively with service units and liaise frequently with internal team members at Headquarters and admin/finance focal points in the regional offices.
- Prepare envelope requests, allotments; Review obligations and financial authorizations to be sent to the regions.
- Prepare staffing tables.

Core competencies

- Professionalism: Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results, and remains calm in stressful situations.
- Communication: Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
Teamwork: Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals.
- Planning and Organizing: Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; allocates appropriate amount of time and resources to complete work; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as required.
- Client orientation: Considers all those to whom services are provided as “clients” and seeks to see things from their point of view; identifies clients’ needs and matches appropriate solutions; keeps client informed of progress or setbacks in projects.

Qualifications and experience

- Completion of secondary school or its equivalent commercial school.
- At least eight years of administrative experience, of which four preferably within the United Nations.

Languages

Fluency in oral and written English.

Other

While this temporary assignment will provide the successful applicant with an ideal opportunity to gain new work experience, the selection for this position is for a limited period and has no bearing on the future incumbency of the post. External applicants may be considered when it is not possible to identify suitable internal candidates of the same department/office. Please note that external candidates are generally not entitled to be appointed at the advertised level of this temporary vacancy and will therefore be graded in accordance with the current recruitment guidelines. This means that the grade may be at a lower level than that of the advertised level of the post. For information on the provisions for special post allowance, please refer to ST/AI/1999/17.