UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Head of Finance Unit, the Finance Associate supports effective execution of operational services and processes in Country Office (CO) and transparent utilization of financial resources. The Finance Associate promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UNDP rules and regulations.

The Finance Associate works in close collaboration with the operations, programme and projects’ staff in the CO and with UNDP HQs staff, as well as agency staff in BIH and their respective HQs for resolving operations-related issues and information exchange.

 

1. Accounting and administrative support:

  • Proper control of the supporting documents for entering payment request for GSSU processing
  • Enter payment request for GSSU submission – CO and agencies requests
  • Correspondence with GSSU on all matters related to submission of payment requests
  • Calculating bank charges on weekly bases and preparing inputs for bank charges apportionment
  • Importing Pay Cycle file received from GSSU and preparing payments for e-banking

2. Support to financial and administrative management of Common Premises and Services in UN House and project sites, focusing on achievement of the following results:

  • In collaboration with UN Custodian, keeping accurate information on building occupancy at all times
  • Preparing Invoices for projects and agencies that share Common Premises and Services;
  • In collaboration with other Finance Associate, maintaining accurate information on projects’ Chart of Accounts (COA)  to support timely recovery of Common Premises and Services costs;
  • Supporting CO budget liquidity at all times by apportioning and charging Common Premises and Services costs at the time of payment from projects’ budgets (direct recovery);
  • Preparing annual certification on Common premises and services budgets and expenditures;
  • Maintaining Common Premises and Services filing system;
  • Ad hoc and analytic reports related to Common Premises and Services as per request from Agencies and UNDP Management Team

3. Support to financial administration of UNDP Drivers/Vehicle Pool, focusing on achievement of the following results:

  • Systemic overview and control of all records and initiating request for payments related to Drivers in Drivers/Vehicle Pool;
  • Supporting timely recovery of apportioned costs related to type of use of vehicles (per day or lumpsum) in Drivers/Vehicle Pool as agreed with each project;
  • Provision of inputs for preparation of cost-recovery bills for the services provided by Driving Pool, follow up on cost recovery;
  • Keeping payment records related to Drivers/Vehicle Pool

4. Support full VAT refund by ensuring highest level of VAT administration accuracy, focusing on achievement of the following results:

  • Serving as the CO lead and providing guidelines for VAT related issues to CO, projects and agency staff in BiH;
  • Keeping up with changes to the existing VAT legislation and implementation guidelines and providing timely advice to the CO, projects and agency staff in BiH as well as developing good professional relations with Indirect Tax Authority (ITA) staff;
  • Reviewing collected documentation for VAT refund and verifying accuracy;
  • Preparing final refund requests along with the necessary documentation to ensure smooth refund of VAT;
  • Reconciling Atlas VAT account on regular basis to ensure that each item recorded in Atlas is accounted for at all times.

5. Ensures implementation of operational strategies, adapts processes and procedures focusing on achievement of the following results:

  • Full compliance of financial processes and financial records and reports with UN/UNDP rules and regulations, and audit follow up; implementation of the effective internal control framework;
  • Providing inputs and data analysis to support development of the office Operations strategy;
  • CO Finance business processes mapping and elaboration of the content of internal Standard Operating Procedures in Finance in consultation with the direct supervisor and office management;
  • Active participation/coordination of Business Operations Strategy (BOS) activities;
  • Analyzing various data, collecting information and preparing response to HQ requests;
  • Coordinating inputs from Operations Units regarding various HQ requests and periodic reports;
  • Performing functions of Asset Physical Verification Coordinator.

6. Supports knowledge building and knowledge sharing in the CO focusing on achievement of the following results:

  • Participating in the organization of trainings for the operations/projects staff on Finance issues;
  • Keeping updated on latest UNDP corporate changes, new regulations, clustering process and best practices in Finance and sharing/implementing them in the CO as appropriate;
  • Contributing to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Core Behavioural Competencies
Achieve Results

  • Demonstrate focus on achieving quality results and impact
  • Consistently strive to meet or exceed excellence standards
  • Hold self and others accountable for results
  • Efficiently establish appropriate plans and resources for self and others to accomplish goals

Think Innovatively

  • Look beyond conventional approaches and established methods
  • Propose new ideas, approaches, and solutions to problems
  • Seek patterns and clarity outside boxes and categories while resisting false certainty and simplistic binary choice

Learn Continuously

  • Actively pursue opportunities for learning and self-development professionally and personally
  • Keep abreast of new developments in one’s professional area
  • Proactively seek feedback, demonstrates a desire to learn from others as well as from experiences, both positive and negative
  • Contribute to the learning of others

Adapt with Agility

  • Be flexible in handling change, and adopt new ideas, approaches, and ways of working
  • Seamlessly adapt to working within new situations or contexts, with new people, and in different ways
  • Participate in, support, contribute to or drive meaningful change in UNDP
  • Be comfortable with ambiguity and effectively managing multiple demands

Engage and Partner

  • Act in a way that demonstrates empathy and emotional intelligence, showing consideration for the needs and feelings of others
  • Demonstrate and encourage teamwork and co-creation internally and externally to achieve joint objectives and results
  • Establish and develop networks that deliver powerful collaborations
  • Encourage and respect the views of others; accept views and ideas other than one’s own

Cross-Functional Competencies

Strategic Thinking

  • Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
  • Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP

Business Acumen and Commercial Thinking

  • Ability to understand and deal with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome
  • Knowledge and understanding of the operational frameworks in the organization and ability to make good judgments and quick decisions within such frameworks

System Thinking

  • Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system

Knowledge Generation

  • Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need

Communication

  • Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience

Technical Competencies

Finance - Accounting (general)

  • Knowledge of accounting concepts, principles, frameworks, standards, regulations, policies and trends, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations.

Finance – Budget management

  • Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets.

Finance – Contributions Management

  • Ability to receive, record, report and manage contributions received.

Finance – Reporting and Analysis

  • Ability to extract, evaluate financial data, derive relevant findings and present them in a meaningful and coherent manner to facilitate effective decision making and performance monitoring.

Administration and Operations – Documents and records management

  • Overall document (hard and electronic) management; registry and retention policy including storing and archiving

 

Education: 

  • University Degree in Finance or Accounting; Economics or Technical Sciences;
  • Secondary Education with specialized certification in Accounting and/or Finance with additional three years of experience may be accepted in lieu of University Degree.
  • Part-qualified accountants from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage;
  • UNDP Accountancy & Finance Test is required for candidates


Experience: 

  • 3 years (6 years with Secondary Education) of relevant administrative/finance or project finance experience is required at the national or international level.
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling web-based management systems - mandatory.
  • Experience with ERP financials, preferably PeopleSoft would be an asset.
  • Experience within UN would be an asset.

Language Requirements: 

  • Proficiency in English and local languages.

Important applicant information

All posts in the GS categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

Contract Duration: 2 Year with possibility for extension

This vacancy is archived.

Recommended for you