Senior Admin Assistant (Property Management) - UNHCR TA - G5 - HRT051 - Beirut, Lebanon

Seven years into the Syria crisis, Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with over one million Syrian refugees, and around 20,000 refugees of Iraqi, Sudanese, Ethiopian and other origins, in addition to the Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate.  There are no formal camps for Syrian refugees in the country, and refugees are living in hundreds of communities and locations across the country.

The refugee response is led by the Government and local actors, supported by the international community. As the designated lead agency in the refugee response, UNHCR has established a sector-based structure in Beirut and in the field. The structure brings together over 100 UN agencies, national and international NGO partners in identifying and agreeing on the strategic priorities to address the needs of Syrian refugees and other affected populations. The Lebanon national response falls under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), whereby UNHCR guides the refugee response and UNDP facilitates the resilience and stabilization component.

The UNHCR operational response in Lebanon is one of the largest for the organization. Media attention and the frequency of influential high-profile visitors is high. Aside from the country office in the capital city of Beirut, UNHCR has offices in Mt Lebanon, Qobayat, Tripoli, Tyre and Zahle.

The Senior Admin Assistant (Property Management) will inspect premises and property grounds to check for and flag maintenance issues. The incumbent will report any problems that violate building safety, identify needed repairs, broken fixtures and equipment, coordinate building deliveries, monitor rodent, and insect exterminations, and assign duties to housekeeping and maintenance personnel. Other building management duties including overseeing incoming and outgoing shipments from loading dock areas, tracking lost or missing packages, managing the inventory for the distribution of keys, furniture, and space, and handling audio and visual equipment requests for meeting rooms. In addition, the administrative assistant will ensure that staff offices are equipped and ready for use.

Accountability (key results that will be achieved)

• UNHCR premises in the country is managed in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Responsibility (process and functions undertaken to achieve results) 

• Provide and oversee all in-house maintenance works in the building ie. Generators, plumbing works, electrical and AC maintenance.

• Assist in interpreting and processing of entitlements, issuance of contracts and maintenance of various personnel records and files.  

• Assist in requisition of office supplies, equipment and arrange for distribution together with the appropriate inventory records, establish a preventative maintenance policy to identify and deal with repair needs.

• Undertake market surveys and recommend contractors who have been vetted for good pricing and good work that are up to standards.

• Search office files and records relating to a variety of topics for information and reference.  Select information and records in specified format or on the basis of general instructions for use by others in preparing reports, correspondence, technical papers, project or programme plans and general reference documents. 

• Maintain all outdoor areas of the office.

• Maintain and monitor a 24 hour emergency repair hot-line for emergency work that may occur after working hours.

• Provide the office with recommendations on how best they can minimize cost for procurement and maintenance and prepare cost estimate.

• Follow the duly stipulated procurement rules and prepare the relevant documents to suppliers while sourcing for service and goods and ensure payments are made in good time according to set procedures.

• Assist in drafting of lease agreements

Authority (decisions made in executing responsibilities and to achieve results)

• Allocate office space for the country operation.
• Assign jobs to different parties (in-house employees, handyman and other professional contractors) based any work to be done in the office premises.