Financial Management Specialist

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous international organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders. Established in 1986 as a technical capacity building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees. ADPC Strategy 2020 guides the organization in providing comprehensive risk reduction support to countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC recognizes the importance of examining the linkages between disaster risk management, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainability, rights-based approaches, climate change and regional cooperation. For details please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

Background

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP. To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate-resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households and private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC will be implementing a five years’ project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Project for South Asia” (CARE). The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments across South Asia. This objective will be achieved through enhanced regional cooperation and knowledge exchange for climate resilience and adaptation and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans and investments. Financial management plays a vital role in order to satisfactorily implement all the required components as planned within the fiscally agreed budget. It would involve preparation of yearly expenditure budget against the planned activities and its disbursement accordingly. It would require preparation of various financial statements and returns to comply with World Bank regulations, for Bank funded projects. Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Financial Management Specialist will be required to regulate project budget and expenditure. S/he will be selected on competitive basis following World Bank Procurement Regulations.

The objectives of this consultancy service are to:

• Strengthen the financial management capacity of ADPC in the implementation of CARE Project through the provision of financial management expertise and advice and support;
• Ensure that ADPC’s financial management system and financial statements (“Financial Statements”) are in accordance with international accounting standards in compliance with the regulations of the World Bank;
• Ensure that all financial management processes of the CARE Project are carried out in compliance with the Financing Agreement, World Bank Guidelines and ADPC’s policies and their associated regulations.

Statement of Intent

The Financial Management Specialist (FMS) will support further development of ADPC’s finance and accounting management system making it better at providing timely and reliable information for decision making, accountability, project management and auditing purposes and ensure consistency and compliance with ADPC’s fiduciary requirements. The consultant will be based in Bangkok, Thailand and report to Project Director and work in close collaboration and coordination with the Chief of Finance Department. Note: It is not the intent of this Terms of Reference to cover every aspect of the position requirements, rather to highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Financial Management Specialist shall be responsible for:

Budgeting and Planning

• Support the CARE Project team in preparing the budget for the annual Work Plan of the CARE Project;
• Prepare CARE Project’s annual Cash Plan on the basis of the annual Work Plan;
• Upload annual budget on the FMIS and prepare monthly monitoring reports comparing actual expenditure against the budget;
• Highlight weak performing areas for attention of Project Director;
• Prepare annual and quarterly disbursement forecasts for all components of the CARE Project in line with project’s procurement plan and Work Plan/Cash Plan.

Funds Management

• Prepare cash forecasts on a quarterly basis in coordination with the CARE Project team and submit to the donor for advance and replenishment of advance;
• Prepare and process Statement of Expenditure (SoE) withdrawal application in accordance with the Bank’s Disbursement Guidelines;
• Track funds and follow up with the World Bank to ensure timely credit of funds into the CARE Project’s account.

Expenditure/Payment Processing

• Ensure compliance with ADPC’s control framework and CARE Project specific requirements (e.g. Operations Manual, SOPs and the World Bank’s fiduciary guidelines etc.), rules and procedures while processing payments;
• Analyze, plan, design, implement, and monitor, in cooperation with the Finance Department, a system to augment internal controls in the process of payment and expenditure management;
• Apply pre-audit checks on all payments before payment from the assignment accounts including budget availability, the sanction of competent authority and compliance with applicable financial rules & regulations;
• Ensure that No Objection Letter (NOL) is obtained from the World Bank for every prior review activity before processing any payment;
• Manage financial aspects of the contracts under implementation, including payment terms, purchase orders and variation orders.

Financial Reporting

• Prepare quarterly financial summaries and submit to Project Director and the World Bank in time for review and approval;
• Assist in preparing ADPC annual financial statements ensuring that a separate note on CARE is included in the financial statements;
• Prepare periodic financial reports as needed and specified for the CARE Project;
• Ensure that all the financial reporting requirements of the project are complied with;
• Cooperate with the World Bank and other partners to improve financial management, particularly in terms of following up the action points agreed in the project legal documents, during the World Bank supervision missions, Aide Memoires and the recommendations of auditors.

Qualifications

The candidate should at least have:

• An internationally recognized professional accounting qualification (ACCA/CA/CPA) OR an advanced degree - Master’s or equivalent - in Financial Management or similar;
• At least seven years of relevant work experience, after acquiring the stipulated qualification, in financial management, audit or accounts. Prior experience of donor-funded and public sector projects will be accorded due weightage;
• Experience with reputed accounting firms is an advantage;
• Excellent English language writing and communications skills;
• Excellent computer skills including MS Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

Reporting Relationships

The consultant will report to the Project Director and work in close coordination with the Chief of Finance Department.