This position is located in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in Bamako. The incumbent will report to the Chief Finance and Budget Officer.

Responsibilities

Under the general supervision of the Chief Finance and Budget Officer and the Chief of the Budget Unit, the Finance and Budget Assistant will perform the following tasks:

• Assists with the preparation of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of mission’s resourcing requirements such as staff and non-staff requirements, including programmatic aspects; assists, reviews and revises data with respect to the finalization of the budget proposals as well as Result Based Budgeting inputs.
• Assists with support to programme/fund centre managers (Substantive and Support Sections) with respect to the elaboration of resource requirements for budget submissions.
• Administers and monitors extra-budgetary resources through cost recovery, including review of agreements and cost plans, issuance of allotments and ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures
• Administers and process trust fund transactions through the grants module including issuance of allotments, implementing partner grants, transfer, and any other transactions in accordance with the established procedures.
• Processes the mission’s redeployment of funds in accordance with the established procedures.
• Supports with the review in ensuring the efficient and effective use of budgetary resources through robust monitoring of budget utilization to the approved budget and timely provision of information to Mission management for decision making. Provides support and guidance to fund centre/programme managers on budget implementation and processes corrective actions where necessary.
• Assists with the preparation of budget performance reports for the mission, ensuring that correct and accurate data/information is provided by the various programme /fund centre managers in compliance with the Controller’s instructions. Assists with reviews and finalizes performance reports ensuring valid and adequate variance explanations between approved budgets and actual expenditures.
• Analyzes accounting transactions and open items in the accounting system and recommends corrective actions.
• Reviews and reconciles various clearing accounts, investigates erroneous/invalid entries and recommends corrective accounting action.
• Provides support to Fund Center managers for the year-end reviews of budget commitments in accordance with established criteria.
• Reviews and verifies that appropriate relevant supporting documents have been provided for the processing of payments for goods and services received.
• Generates and assists in the preparation of budgetary reports, including statistical/financial data for tables, charts and spreadsheets using office software and templates; and prepares and customizes financial reports.
• Drafts correspondence and communications related to all aspects of programme/project administration, including work plan and budgets, revisions and other related issues, as well as prepares unit’s contributions for a variety of periodic reports.
• Acts as a Certifying Officer under Financial Rule 105.5 or Approving Officer under Financial Rule 105.4, in adherence with the UN Regulations and Rules.
• Provides advice, financial interpretations, adaptations and corrective actions in response to audits and other queries to ensure adherence to the UN Financial Regulations and Rules, Staff Rules, Administrative Instructions, Bulletins and Circulars under the supervision/guidance of the Chief Finance and Budget Officer.
• Assists with the review and recording of financial transactions related to assets, assets under construction and inventory.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Education

• High school diploma or equivalent is a requirement.

Work Experience

• At least 8 years of progressively responsible experience within the United Nations system or in the private sector at the national or international level in accounting, budgeting or financial management is required.
• Experience in working with Excel or similar programme involving large data sets (using pivot tables and arrays) and calculations is required.
• Knowledge of an ERP computer system, such as Umoja or another SAP-based application, is required.
• Experience and technical competence on the preparation of the proposed budget using Umoja Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC), including demonstrated experience on using the military and police units (MPU), position (POS), travel (TVL) model, materials and services (MAS), and summary (SUM) models is desirable.
• Experience and technical competence such as local process expert qualification in the following Umoja modules: Funds Management (FM), and/or Financial Accounting (FI), is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. Fluency in English (both oral and written) is required. Knowledge of French is desirable.