Director of Administration and Finance (Parliament)
(1 Position)
Internationally recruited position
- Department: Specialised Institution
- Directorate: Adminstration and Finance
- Grade: D1
- Annual Salary: USD 60,372 - USD 75,005
- Supervisor: Secretary General
- Reference: ECW-PARL/REC-D/002/2015
- Duration: Permanent
- Duty Station: Abuja, Nigeria
- Closing Date: 30 June 2015
A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Statutory Appointees or D2 level Officers. Directorates are headed by Directors or Officers holding Director level positions.
Directors or Director level Officers are responsible for providing the expertise in particular areas for the design and implementation of technical projects in line with ECOWAS objectives.
Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution’s mandate. They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies’, the President’s and the Commissioner’s broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate. D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff.
Directors or Director level Officers are responsible for providing the expertise in particular areas for the design and implementation of technical projects in line with ECOWAS objectives.
Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution’s mandate. They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies’, the President’s and the Commissioner’s broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate. D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff.
Duties and Responsibilities
Leadership Tasks
Directors or Director level Officers report directly to Departmental Heads. As the principal link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible for:
The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff. He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.
Managerial tasks will include:
While the Director will have a reserve of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:
Co-ordinates administrative support to the Parliament, particularly in the areas of human resource, general administration, finance, communication, facility management and transport;
Directors or Director level Officers report directly to Departmental Heads. As the principal link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible for:
- Clearly communicating the Department’s vision to staff, explain how the Directorate’s activities aligns with them as well as ways of carrying out set tasks on it;
- Staying on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes;
- Remaining in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.
The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff. He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.
Managerial tasks will include:
- Plan annual goals, objectives, activities and budget tied to the Directorate’s overall plans; measure and monitor goal achievement; negotiate suitable adjustments to goals and budgets;
- Implement performance-based budgeting within the Directorate;
- Organize the Directorate in an efficient way with clear reporting lines, minimal bureaucracy and optimal delegation of responsibilities and authority;
- Work with the relevant Directorate to ensure efficient and effective services such as recruitment, action on performance decisions, promotions and related matters;
- Set standards of work and create mechanisms to monitor staff output and ensure that standards are maintained and deadlines met without compromising quality of work;
- Manage the system of setting individual performance planning and standards through available Performance Planning and Evaluation systems;
- Provide regular and prompt performance feedback to direct reporting;
- Actively engaged in the development of staff to ensure skills are built to match plans, goals and existing structures;
- Create productive working atmosphere within the Directorate to encourage staff participation.
While the Director will have a reserve of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:
- Direct technical guidance on programme design or implementation in an area where he or she has high-level technical expertise;
- Represent ECOWAS in professional meetings or working groups; make speeches, negotiate agreements, mediate disputes;
- Lead or participate in technical missions to develop projects and programmes;
- Advise on issues relating to his or her area of technical expertise;
- Work with the relevant specialized Parliamentary Committee on regional legislation, as needed.
Co-ordinates administrative support to the Parliament, particularly in the areas of human resource, general administration, finance, communication, facility management and transport;
- The Director of Administration and Finance heads the Department of Administration and Finance. Under the authority of the Secretary-General, he/she performs the following functions:
- Planning, coordinating and supervising the activities of the Human Resource and Administration Division, Finance Division, Communication Division and Facility Management and Transport Division of the Parliament.
- Advises on and participates in policy formulation and review relating to Administration and Finance; oversees its effective implementation.
- Interprets the broad policy guidelines of the Parliament and its organs such as the Plenary, the Bureau, the Conference of Bureaux and the Secretariat as they relate to the domain of Administration and Finance.
- Negotiates strategic partnerships and collaborations related to Administration and Finance to advance the work of the Parliament.
- Performs other duties as may be assigned by the Secretary-General.
Qualifications/Experience/Skills
Qualifications:
- A minimum of Master’s Degree in Finance, Accounting, Management or Administration.
- Twelve (12) years professional experience including six (6) years relevant international experience and five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity;
- Possession of higher degree would reduce the required professional experience to ten (10) years with five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
- Experience in a variety of private and public institutions, preferably in a multi-cultural setting and in an international institution would be an advantage.
- Possession of a formal professional Accountancy qualification e.g. CA, ACCA, CIMA etc. would be an advantage.
- Must be fully functional in all aspects of Financial Accounting Software and detailed knowledge of at least one major Accounting Software.
- Leadership skills and ability to work in a multi-cultural team;
- Ability to build partnership with other institutions;
- Excellent knowledge of Financial Accounting principles and concepts in order to perform tasks in accordance with the generally accepted Accounting Principles.
- Inter personal skills necessary to train others in performing key Administrative and Financial activities and supervise their work.
- Good communication skills for influencing groups of peers and stakeholders outside the organization (public speaking, writing, persuasiveness, credibility, negotiation, problem-solving).
- Good interpersonal social skills for working with peers and subordinate staff (listening ability, approachability, clear oral expression).
- Able team-player with peers (creates solutions to problems, creates ideas, and takes on share of the work, reliable).
- Drive and energy;
- Demonstrates fairness;
- Self-control and stress management methods;
- Good personal organization with ability to prioritize comfortably, adjust to rapidly changing priorities and to manage time well;
- Ability to delegate authority clearly and effectively to staff. In particular, ability to use support staff available to the Directorate.
- Ability to make recommendations to the Bureau in respect of administrative and financial decisions;
- Must be Computer Literate.
Age
Candidates should not be over 50 years old at the point of recruitment and must be a citizen of one of the ECOWAS member states;
Language
Candidates must be fluent in one of the official languages of the Community: English, French and Portuguese. A working knowledge of another would be an advantage.
Director of Administration and Finance (Parliament)