Senior Financial Officer

Program Overview

The Government of Lebanon, with support from the international community, has launched the Reaching All Children with Education (RACE) initiative. First launched in 2013, RACE seeks to improve access to formal education for 460,000 Syrian refugee children and underprivileged Lebanese children in the country. Efforts under this new phase of RACE 2 are expected to minimize the short and medium-term costs of displacement for refugee families, while strengthening the long-term capacity of the Lebanese education system to prepare children for life and work once regional stability returns. MEHE-GD, with the support of CERD, is responsible for implementing the S2R2 program.

The Program Development Objective is to promote equitable access, enhance quality of learning, and strengthen the systems in Lebanon’s education sector in response to the protracted refugee crisis. The key results are as follows:

1. Increase in the proportion of school-aged Lebanese and non-Lebanese children (3–18) enrolled in formal education (disaggregated by school type, education cycle, nationality, and gender);
2. Increase in the proportion of students passing their grades, and transitioning to the next (disaggregated by school type, grade, nationality, and gender); and
3. Improvement in MEHE’s capacity to review, evaluate, and update Program implementation.

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

• Apply S2R2 2018 annual wok plan approved by the Minister and the World Bank;
• Review and ensure that all program financial accounts are sufficiently loaded to cover all the program expenses and payments committed under all signed contracts;
• Update, on a monthly basis, all financial documents required by the program and by the donors' audit team, and detail the accounting by category of expenditure, by component and sub component and submit them to CERD President;
• Review and approve all regular expenditures and submitted invoices, under the supervision of CERD President;
• Liaise with CERD’s President to ensure that funds are available for the Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs) and their respective activities;
• Ensure that -once a deliverable has been achieved- expenditures are presented to CERD President;
• Ensure that expenditures are shared with the verification team once a DLI has been achieved – if requested by CERD President;
• Ensure the recording of all accounting and financial data on hard and soft copies and submit them to CERD President;
• Coordinate with all CERD departments, to consolidate all required financial reports before officially submitting them;
• Update the operation manual for the financial and accounting procedures, in coordination with all CERD departments;
• Follow up on all financial operations related to the program;
• Maintain overall budget control and monitor cash flows. Ensure the availability of funds in all the program related accounts, according to the financial disbursement plan;
• Provide to CERD President, on quarterly basis, a list detailing the disbursement priorities covering all expenditures in the financial expenditures plan;
• Ensure that all fixed assets are entered into the accounting software and that an updated copy of the fixed asset list is available with the quarterly financial reports. Supervise a yearly inventory of the fixed assets;
• Coordinate with the Program Audit teams –when needed;
• Suggest to CERD President ways to put into operation recommendations reported by both the Program financial auditors and internal auditor(s);
• Secure, clear and monitor the payments paid from the Designated Accounts – after seeking CERD’s President approval;
• Check and approve the clearance of Petty Cash payment with supporting documents;
• Check and approve all Financial Transactions;
• Coordinate bank reconciliation for replenishment of Designated Bank Accounts under S2R2 with MEHE-GD Senior Financial Officer;
• Make sure that the records for all the Contracts are maintained;
• Check the quarterly financial statements and liaise with all CERD departments to reflect forecast of onward disbursements;
• Follow up on all financial matters with the relevant departments at CERD and at the Central Bank of Lebanon;
• Maintain a fully functional accounting system based on a solid information system that can capture the program financial data;
• Design an Internal Control Mechanism for the smooth movement of all payment system;
• Design accounting policies and procedures and financial reporting tools;
• Document accounting policies and procedures and safeguarding financial documents;
• Manage the Designated Accounts movement through the Designated Bank accounts under S2R2;
• Manage the program cash flow in an efficient and effective manner;
• Check whether proper record and documentation for Program audit is done or not;
• Provide details and assist the Program Audit teams and the Program Audit firms;
• Put into operation all recommendations reported by the Program financial auditors;
• Manage the designated account of the project and prepare monthly bank reconciliation statements;
• Build the capacity of CERD’s accounting division and provide basic training on finance related processing to staff nominated by CERD’s accounting division;
• Suggest a professional development plan and provide needed support to CERD designated staff;
• Ensure that policies and procedures are put in place and/or suggested to CERD’s President to ensure work efficiency and effectiveness;
• Follow up on financial queries or other related work as and when required;
• Any other task relevant to the position and approved by CERD President.