Head of Finance

AN OUTSTANDING OPPORTUNITY TO WORK AT THE FOREFRONT TOWARDS ADDRESSING GLOBAL HUNGER THROUGH SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONS IN THE AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN, AND PACIFIC GROUP OF STATES (ACP)

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation or CTA ( www.cta.int ) is a joint international organization of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the EU member states (EU), ). Its mission is to advance food security, resilience and inclusive economic growth in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific through innovations in sustainable agriculture.

CTA targets three areas of interventions such as the (1) promotion of youth entrepreneurship, job creation, and enterprise, (2) digitalisation of agriculture to increase productivity and profitability of value chains and (3) promotion of climate-smart agricultural practices to strengthen smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change.

CTA operates under the framework of the ACP-EU partnership agreement, currently the Cotonou Agreement. CTA is funded by the EU through two types of grants (annual operating grants and action grants). Other donors also fund CTA projects in the field.

Head of Finance

The position falls under the CTA’s Corporate Services Department. The Corporate Services Department is responsible for budget & financial management, procurement and contractual affairs, and IT services. The Head of Finance reports to the Manager of the Corporate Services Department. He/she is responsible for managing the CTA’s financial services and the systems and processes related to the management of the Centre’s financial resources.  He/she oversees the proper implementation of CTA’ financial regulations.  Together with the Financial Controller / Internal Auditor, he/she ensures adherence to and strengthening of financial policies, procedures, internal controls, and reporting systems. He/she supervises staff in the Accounting and Finance Unit.

Key Responsibilities

Accounting and reporting

• Ensure proper consolidation, balancing and closing of ledger accounts
• Ensure accounting records and files are kept in respect of subsidies/grants, commitments, payments, receivables, and debt claims

• Ensure integrity of CTA’s financial management system and the controls that underpin it
• Provide regular reports on financial performance (budget, commitments, and expenditure) to Management and the Executive Board
• Prepare annual financial statements

• Lead in maintaining accounting policies, procedures, systems, and internal controls to meet operational and programme requirements, ensuring compliance with CTA’s, tax authorities’ and donor’s financial regulations. Take the lead in designing and implementing required changes

Treasury and forecasting

• Approve commitments and ensure they are in accordance with budgets
• Approve payments and ensure they are accurate and made timely and in accordance with budgets and established regulations and donor requirements
• Manage and forecast cash flow
• Prepare requests for payment to donors and maintain files on relevant grant documents

Budget

• Advise on development of budgets for projects and operations in the field as well as at Headquarters
• Prepare, set and consolidate operating and program budgets
• Review periodically budgets and update as needed
• Provide regular financial reports to programme coordinators, team leaders, and managers

Audits

• Prepare and ensure quality control of the files for the annual verification of expenditure, the financial statements, and the statutory audit
• Prepare in coordination with the Financial Controller, management responses to audit comments made during annual and other audits

Candidate Profile

We are looking for internationally recognized accounting professionals (Chartered Public Accountant, Chartered Accountant or equivalent) with an advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business administration, finance, accounting or related field and a minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in finance, accounting, budget, business administration or related area. A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Apart from experience in supervising staff, he or she also must have a proven management experience of accounts, audits, treasury, multi‐year budgetary planning, monitoring, and reporting as well as a proven experience with financial regulations of the European Commission and international funding organizations. Fluency in English or French with working knowledge of the other is essential while working knowledge in Dutch is an asset. The successful candidate must also have excellent knowledge of accounting software (e.g. Navision) and other relevant software packages (e.g. MS Word, Excel), and a competency in deploying information technology to improved efficiency and effectiveness.

Candidates should also possess:

• High degree of accuracy and high standards of ethics and professional conduct to ensure correctness and reliability of financial information and reports
• Good planning and organizational skills, ability to prioritize and meet deadlines
• Good inter-personal skills and good team player
• Good capacity to communicate both verbally and in writing at different levels within the organization and with stakeholders
• Ability to work in an international and multi-cultural environment be flexible and client oriented.
• Ability to effectively lead and inspire others
• Highly developed skills in strategic thinking and problem solving

The candidate must be a national of one of the ACP or EU States signatory to the Cotonou Agreement (79 African, Caribbean, and the Pacific States – http://www.acp.int/content/secretariat-acp – or the European Union Member States).  The Head of Finance will be appointed by the Director of CTA upon recommendation of the Selection Committee.

This is an internationally recruited position located in Wageningen, the Netherlands for which CTA offers an attractive compensation package (gross annual income of € 92.542, mostly tax-free) including a comprehensive benefits package. The successful candidate will be offered a short-term category auxiliary staff, level 2C contract with a 6-month probationary period. The appointed Head of Finance can start as soon as possible and will hold the position until the end of February 2020.

CTA is an equal opportunity employer: applications from women are strongly encouraged.

Applicants should send their an up-to-date CV (preferably in EUROPASS format) and a one-page letter of motivation including copies of the highest diploma/degree, training certificates related to the position, and names and email addresses of 3 professional referees to Ms. Auree de Carbon by email at: adecarbon@carrhure.com  no later than November 30^th  2018 at 18.00 CET. Please indicate in the ‘Subject’ of the email the title ‘application for the post of ‘CTA _ Head of Finance’.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.