Financial Officer in ITM DRC

Context:

The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, with over 500 staff members, is dedicated to improving global health through research and education. ITM has been active in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for over 20 years, focusing on combating sleeping sickness and enhancing public health research in partnership with national institutions.
Role: The Financial Officer of the DRC Office will manage the different projects’ funding streams to/from multiple donors towards multiple ITM DRC partner institutions as well as towards ITM units.

Purpose of the role: 

The financial officer has the responsibility to follow, monitor and optimise the use of the awarded project funds that are being implemented in the DRC. This is a direct role for ITM-managed funds and a support role towards project partners.  .

For this, the financial officer designs and maintains optimal processes in line with the overall ITM financial and operational structures and processes. The financial officer is the first point of contact and support for partners and ITM staff for queries related to the budgets. She/he works in support of the ITM project leads and pro-actively provides advice on context and expenditure for the project leads’ or other management structures to decide. For this, the financial officer, aligns and coordinates carefully with colleagues involved in financial management at ITM-A and where explicitly defined participates in key project meetings. 

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Cost allocations :
  • Monitoring expenditure and ensuring compliance with the approved budget;
  • You are responsible for the financial and administrative support of the project leads and partners in terms of optimising the planning and use of allocated budgets;
  • You maintain an overview of the various financial and administrative arrangements of the ongoing projects and contracts, building up knowledge and insight around the donor conditions for each of the projects;
  • You support the partners, upon request, in following up the budgets allocated to them.
• Cash flow management: Overseeing the cash flow from ITM Antwerp for the operation of the projects in DRC.
• Monitor accounting processes: You support the bookkeepers within the DRC team
• Advising:
  • Providing strategic advice on cost control, investment and other financial issues.
  • Support colleagues on ad-hoc questions.
• Risk management: Identify financial risks and advise the project leads and, where necessary, management on ways to mitigate them (including avoiding risks of fraud and corruption)
• Support financial reporting: Provide support and clarifications to the project scientific and/or financial leads in preparing and presenting periodic and project reports on the financial status.
• Supervise audits: Preparing the organisation/projects for internal and external audits
• Support  budget design of project proposals
• Training : Analyse needs in terms of training in accounting and finance for ITM DRC staff and partners and identify training opportunities (internal or external).