Org. Setting and Reporting

The post is located in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura. The incumbent will report to the Chief Finance and Budget Management Section or his/her designate.

Responsibilities

Budget:
-Assists in the review, analysis and preparation of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of mission’s resourcing requirements such as staff and non-staff requirements, including programmatic aspects;
-Assists with the review of justification for resource requirements for budget submissions in coordination with relevant Sections/Offices on related issues during preparation of the budget proposals;
-Monitors budget implementation/expenditures and assists with the reallocation and re-deployment of funds as necessary;
-Assists in monitoring extra-budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures;
-Verifies accuracy of input data, ensuring consistency of data in previous allotments to new allotments issued; process fund distributions received from HQ and input allotment advice in ECC.
-Assists in preparation of budget performance submissions and finalization of budget performance reports, analyzing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures, compile responses to the questions from PFD, ACABQ, and 5th Committee.

Accounting:
-Performs/participates in the monthly and yearly closing of accounts procedures in Enterprise Resource Programme (Umoja).
-Analyzes complex/unusual accounting transactions and all open items in the accounting system ERP (Umoja) for corrective actions and makes recommendations to the Chief of Unit/Section on appropriate follow-up procedures.
-Reviews and reconciles various clearing accounts and investigates erroneous/invalid entries to take appropriate corrective accounting action.
-Processes incoming/outgoing interoffice vouchers (IOVs), interoffice billings (IOBs) and intermission billings (IMBs) from/to HQs, agencies, funds, programs and other field missions.
-Assists in the preparation of the bank reconciliation on a daily basis.
-Ensures compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in all financial transactions.
-Reviews current budget period commitments to ensure their validity to carry them forward and follow up on cancellation of outstanding commitments where not valid.

Account Payable and Receivable:
-Verifies that relevant supporting documents have been provided, confirming that goods and services have been received in accordance with the contract, agreement, purchase order or other form of undertaking by which they were ordered and that they have been certified by a duly designated certifying officer before vouchers are processed and/or submitted to approving officers for further review and approval.
-Reviews relevant banking details including amendments of banking details in the Business Partner (BP) for wire transfer payments, to ensure that payments are made only to those to whom the organization legitimately owes funds for goods and services actually received.
-Reviews relevant documentations for payments and accounting entries e.g., payment of staff entitlements, final payments, travel claims, vendor invoices, agencies, etc., to ensure conformity and adherence to applicable United Nations policies e.g., applicable staff rules, financial regulations and rules, ST/AI issuances or practices, International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) policy framework etc.


Treasury:
-Prepares, disburses and releases payments by cheques, cash or wire transfer; assists with exception payments for corrective actions.
-Identifies and annotates bank account movements and monitors bank balances of the mission’s accounts.
-Assists in cash management, including preparing cash flow replenishment.
-Records incoming cash and outgoing cash in ERP (Umoja) to/from the cashier’s imprest.
-Assists to make sure cash in vault is replenished timely to avoid shortage of cash.
-Monitors cheque stock and cash receipt vouchers and requests for new stock as required.
-Reviews documents assigned to payment lists to ensure that partner banks commensurate with payment methods to avoid rejected or returned payments.


General Duties:

-Drafts or prepares correspondence to respond to inquiries in respect to financial and budget matters.
-Performs other related duties, as assigned.

Competencies

-Professionalism: Knowledge of, and ability to apply financial rules, regulations and procedures in the UN environment. Ability to maintain accurate records, review and interpret a wide variety of data. Ability to demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Commitment to implementing the goal of gender equality by ensuring the equal participation and full involvement of women and men in all aspects of work.

-Accountability: Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honors commitments; delivers outputs 
for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules; supports subordinates, provides oversight and takes responsibility for delegated assignments; takes personal responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable.

– Client Orientation: Considers all those to whom services are provided to be “clients” and seeks 
to see things from clients’ point of view; establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients gaining their trust and respect; identifies clients’ needs and matches them to appropriate solution; monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients’ environment to keep informed and anticipate problems; keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects; meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client.

Education

High School Diploma or equivalent is required. Technical or vocational certificate in accounting, finance, budget or related fields is desirable.

Work Experience

A minimum of seven (07) years of progressively responsible experience in accounting, budgeting and financial management or related field is required. Experience with Enterprise Resource Programme (ERP) system especially System Applications and Products (SAP) is desirable. Formal training and experience in UN internal applications, IPSAS accounting system and UMOJA, are desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the post advertised, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is an advantage.

Assessment

Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by competency-based interview.

Special Notice

Recruitment against these two positions is on a local basis; applicants in the General Service category shall meet the relevant employment requirements of the host country (Lebanon), including fulfilling visa or work permit stipulations. If you fulfill the visa and work permit stipulations for Lebanon, please specify in your cover letter and attach a copy of your visa and work permit under ‘attachments” of your application in Inspira.

The United Nations Secretariat is committed to achieving 50/50 gender balance in its staff. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for this position.

United Nations Considerations

According to article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity. Candidates will not be considered for employment with the United Nations if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation or sexual abuse, or crimes other than minor traffic offences, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. The term “sexual exploitation” means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. The term “sexual abuse” means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions.

Due regard will be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible. The United Nations places no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs. The United Nations Secretariat is a non-smoking environment.

Applicants are urged to follow carefully all instructions available in the online recruitment platform, inspira. For more detailed guidance, applicants may refer to the Manual for the Applicant, which can be accessed by clicking on “Manuals” hyper-link on the upper right side of the inspira account-holder homepage.

The evaluation of applicants will be conducted on the basis of the information submitted in the application according to the evaluation criteria of the job opening and the applicable internal legislations of the United Nations including the Charter of the United Nations, resolutions of the General Assembly, the Staff Regulations and Rules, administrative issuances and guidelines. Applicants must provide complete and accurate information pertaining to their personal profile and qualifications according to the instructions provided in inspira to be considered for the current job opening. No amendment, addition, deletion, revision or modification shall be made to applications that have been submitted. Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application.

Job openings advertised on the Careers Portal will be removed at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on the deadline date.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.