POSITION TITLE: Grant and Finance Officer

REPORTS TO: Senior Award and Sub Award Manager

LOCATION: Dar es Salaam

 JOB SUMMARY

The Grant and Finance Officer at CARE International is a vital position responsible for ensuring that financial transactions related to program and project implementation are conducted in strict compliance with CARE’s financial regulations, donor agreements, budgetary policies, and established accounting standards and best practices. The role involves the preparation and timely submission of accurate, well-organized financial reports for management review and donor reporting, under the direction of the Senior Award and Sub Award Manager. The officer support the management and supervision of award and sub award, ensuring adherence to CARE’s policies, donor stipulations, and sound financial practices. Additionally, the position provides technical support, guidance, and capacity building to program staff and partners to promote compliance with donor terms, statutory requirements, and internal policies, including sub-award management. The role also encompasses overseeing program office accounting activities, such as managing payments, coordinating with bank agents, and maintaining precise records of financial and contractual documents in line with organizational standards.

 KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

 1. Financial Compliance on the Program Grants

• Ensuring that program staff and Partners fully understand and follow best practice in managing of the grants
• Ensuring that Donor specific requirements for assigned project are fully understood and the implications for how grants and sub grants are managed are known by program and partners' staff
• Ensure projects documentation and financial transactions including partners follow Donor, CARE policies and statutory requirements
• Maintain program files such as Donor Contract, Program Budget and Program activity plan in orderly manner.
• Monitoring compliance with best practice including carrying out visits to field areas, partners' offices and partners for monitoring, capacity building, verifications and support management of financial transactions in implementation of program activities.
• Keeping up to date with changes and new developments in relevant CARE International policies and procedures on Award and Sub Award Management, Donor's policies proactively ensure program staff and partners are familiar with changes and new developments in grants and financial management.
• Participate in annual and periodic physical stock counting.
• Provide timely input to the management to support timely provision of data and project setups in the People Soft including;
• Maintain of Award and Sub Award information Management, enforce the filling system and data base as per CARE Tanzania procedures manual ensure documents are maintained at program level
• Provide required support and details during internal and external auditors and respond to audit queries and follow up implementation of audit recommendations.

    2. Sub Award Management

·       From time to time participate in selection, implementation, monitoring and close out processes of sub agreements:

·       Liaising with Program Coordinators/project Managers to build understanding of projects and partner’s implementation plans, budget and financial needs,

·       Provide guidance to partners on compliance issues, CARE and donors’ rules and policies and also on Statutory compliances on financial matters

·       From time to time participates in the partners’ assessments processes,

·       Maintain a sub grants tracker for funds disbursed and liquidations received. An aging analysis of the remaining funds should be prepared on a monthly basis.

·       Prepare monitoring plans and share with program coordinator and compile issues identified during verification process and monitoring visits and report back to the supervisors.

·       Prepare modifications on Partner Funding Agreement including budget details and submit to Senior Award and Sub Award Manager for review and further actions

3.     Financial Reports and Analytical Reviews

      Management Reports (Internal Reporting)

·       At the beginning of each month, review projects budgets and prepare highlights on grants & sub grants financial requirements for sharing with the program team.

·       At the end of each month, prepare monthly Project Budget Variance analysis for the review of respective budget holders on monthly basis, and submit the reviewed report with recommended actions on noted variations or errors to the senior award and sub award manager and accounting manager, and ensure timely implementation of the approved recommendations or adjustments.

·       Prepare periodic financial analysis to monitor budget performance for management review and ensure timely implementation of recommendations provided to address budget variances, errors, exceptions, and ensure reports are shared with the program team to improve financial performance of the program. 

·       Review monthly grants and contracts Payable/Receivable balances of the assigned projects and liaise with senior award and sub award manager to ensure correctness of balances and prepare Cash forecasts for respective projects and submit to senior award and sub award manager.

Donor Reports (External Reporting)

·       Prepare grants financial reports of the assigned projects for review of senior award and sub award manager and final submission to Donor, ensure the reports are prepared in line with the specified Donor agreements and other conditions provided.

·       Lead the project/program team in preparing proposals on budget amendments and modification for management review and submission to Donor and ensure approved budget changes are recorded in people soft by completing required Donor Approved Budget forms and submitting to senior award and sub award manager and uploading in People Soft (PS).

4. Account Payable and Receivable

·       Coordinate and supervise process of recording account payable and receivable transactions to vendors’ accounts in People soft and ensure payments are timely executed for the transactions executed at the program office through pay cycle system

·       Review supporting documents and entries in the PS system to ensure validity, correctness and appropriate use of account codes and other required fields prior to approval recorded transactions by budget holders,

·       Reviewing non Purchase Order payments for compliance to ensure validity of transactions and completeness of supporting documents,

·       Before month closure, review and reconcile the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable of the respective projects and report on identified error or required adjustments to ensure transactions are always recorded in compliance with donor agreement and in accordance with accounting standards and CARE International policies. Follow up with the Accounts Coordinator on any exceptions identified during the analysis

·       Complete required forms on statutory deductions in particular withholding taxes and submit them to Accounts Coordinator for further actions, and ensure withholding taxes are correctly and transparently recorded under Account Payable (AP) journals to ensure easy tracking and timely submission of payments to appropriate authorities,

·       Follow up with responsible officers to ensure timely clearance or collection of outstanding payables and receivables and inform the management of any long overdue receivables or payables that do not receive response.

·       Critical review of financial documents on the accuracy of chart field, compliance with national, CARE and donor policy and arithmetical accuracy of the voucher and its supporting documents before affecting payment.

·       Facilitate fund disbursement to staff, vendors, consultants, sub-grantees and expenses recording

·       Review un-posted vouchers and inform concerned approvers for their immediate action.

·       Ensure proper filing and management of financial documentation. That include stamp “PAID” all paid financial documents before being securely filed

·       Process prepaid expenses and accruals and ensure that proper coding is done.

·       Process liquidations from staff and sub-grantees and ensure that proper application is done.

·       Record receipts from staff and sub-grantees and ensure consistency on receipt records, deposit at bank and record in the PeopleSoft (PS). Ensure that proper coding and application is done in the system.

5. Treasury Management

·       Prepare projects’ cash projections and cash forecast on quarterly basis and submit them to Accounts Coordinator to ensure availability of cash for program/projects implementation. On monthly basis submit cash request form to program, lead to review and submit the cash requests to Country office on timely manner,

·       Coordinate banking operations within the program office to ensure smooth execution of payments and other transactions,

·       Coordinate with the senior award and sub award manager to ensure timely preparation and submission of billing to donors by providing timely inputs and ensure received grants transfers and other miscellaneous receipts, are timely and correctly recorded under respective fund codes and PID,

·       Facilitate, prepare and ensure payments to vendors are accurately done and within a reasonable time, and regular reviews bank accounts to ensure validity and completeness of transactions,

·       Maintain or supervise petty cash (if necessary) and ensure timely recording of liquidation, perform spot checks on petty cash to ensure proper use of petty cash.

·       Facilitate online payments to participants of organized events at the program level or cash payment in small amounts during office workshops and other events.

·       Maintain and ensure accurate recording of cheque register and submission of checklists to the banks for confirmation of payments in time.

·       Review bank statements and analyze bank charges transactions to ensure correctness before recording bank charges and submitting the statement to Accounts Coordinator/Shared Service Centre for further analysis and reconciliations and support SSS with required clarifications on pending and unreconciled bank transactions to enable timely completion of bank reconciliations and month closure

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

·       Bachelor’s degree in accounting/finance/commerce or any other related field. A postgraduate degree in accounting in Accounting/Finance/Commerce is an added advantage.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• A minimum of 3 years working experience in Finance/Accounting is required.
• Experience of working with International NGO in similar position.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

• Relationship Building – Builds trust with community, partner, and institutional actors.
• Communication – Communicates clearly and respectfully with diverse stakeholders.
• Delivering Results – Strong execution capacity; sees initiatives through to measurable outcomes.
• Influencing and Advocacy – Effectively represents organizational priorities, builds consensus among diverse stakeholders and advances financial inclusion agendas within FSPs and other partners.
• Inclusion & Gender Sensitivity – Fosters inclusive and culturally relevant approaches to financial access.
• Adaptability – Responds to evolving needs with flexibility and creative solutions.