Senior Compliance Officer

 Job Summary

 General Description of the Role:

The main function of the Senior Compliance Officer is to ensure that GOAL Zimbabwe is fully compliant with GOAL, Donor and Government rules and regulations. The person will work across all departments including programmes, finance, logistics and HR and will work under the supervision of the Systems Director. She/he will be responsible to plan and coordinate the department activities, create awareness and ensure the implementation of donor, GOAL and Government rules and regulations, Complete the Quarterly Compliance Task List for HQ submission each quarter, Sub grantee management, monitoring and reporting, maintain GOAL Zimbabwe hard and soft copy grant files centrally, facilitate grant management meetings and the coordination of donor audits either in country or through Dublin. He/she is also responsible to ensure the regular compliance visits and checks are conducted for all GOAL Zimbabwe programmes and operations and identifies potential areas of compliance vulnerability and risks. The role is based in Harare but will require visits to field sites of operation and provide training as per the need.

Main responsibilities:

Key Duties

1. A strong understanding of GOAL and donor requirements from the proposal process to the end of project implantation and post-project period

• Gain understanding of internal procedures as well as donor requirements related to programmatic and operational systems.
• Continuously acquire knowledge on donor requirements and guidelines and keep GOAL Zimbabwe staff informed, emphasizing compliance risks.
• Stay informed and ensure compliance with GOAL's own processes and policies, including but not limited to Anti-Fraud and Bribery, Conflict of Interest and Whistleblowing policies, procurement and financial processes.
• Conduct Workplace Integrity training twice a year in the first and third quarter.
• Liaise with HQ on compliance related issues. Attending meetings, trainings, regularly updating the Desk Office.

        2. Compliance Reports

• Complete compliance reports as assigned by HQ Compliance (quarterly/biannual).
• Keep a record of all action points and recommendations from quarterly reviews, communicate the findings to the respective heads of departments, develop action plans and follow up on progress until the issue has been resolved.

       3. Trainings

• Support the HR department by conducting inductions for new staff joining GOAL Zimbabwe.
• Train relevant staff (Initial Reviewers, Reviewers, Senior Reviewers) on conducting Anti-Terrorism and Sanctions Checks in the system.
• Provide refresher trainings to GOAL staff on donor requirements where gaps have been noted and where there additional or new requirements/guidelines from the donors.

        4. Partnership Compliance

• Facilitate the partner onboarding process and partnership compliance.
• Conduct pre-award assessments (as per the Partnership Manual) of potential organizations that GOAL has synergies with and proposes to be in partnership with.
• Conduct periodic and final compliance reviews of partner transactions, making recommendations to Finance on whether to make partial or full completion of payments. Reviews include but are not limited to field visits to partners' offices where possible and/or virtual follow-up meetings.
• Keep a record of actions and recommendations for each partner and must ensure that these are communicated to the partner's management.
• Conduct Organizational Capacity Assessments for and with partners as directed in the Partner Funding Agreement and develop action and capacity plans that should be followed through.
• Facilitate for GOAL to support the partner(s) – as requested by the partner(s) or as picked up during reviews – through trainings of donor requirements, development/review/revision of policies to strengthen their processes.

          5. Anti-Terrorism and Sanctions Checks

• Responsible for the administration of the ATSC system.
• Provide training and technical support to users when required, unlock, user reset and password changes, and report cases to HQ compliance of situations that require other access.

          6. Quality Assurance

• Verify that supporting documentation for projects are of good integrity and quality.
• Confirm that reconciliations at the field offices have been done to check that there are no variances from stock cards to the distribution registers.
• Assist programme and technical staff in the development of standard procedure for adherence to donor requirements and for quality assurance.
• Ensure appropriate documentation management system is in place for the field office is well maintained in accordance with GOAL Dublin and donor requirements for audit. (Improve as necessary)

           7. Grant Management

• Facilitates grant management meetings (grant opening, review and closeout). Contributes to grant management meetings from a compliance perspective.
• Maintain an up-to-date grants database and ensure all project grant documentation is up-to-date and complete (including enforcing appropriate filing requirements for all grant documents).
• Prepare a monthly donor reporting calendar to be shared with relevant staff and ensure reports are submitted timeously. Submitted versions to be filed when received.

           8. Mainstreaming Issues

• Familiarize self, understand, and implement according to area of responsibility, GOAL’s policies, and procedures on mainstreaming of Gender, HIV/AIDS, and Child protection.
• Compliance Issues

• Familiarize self to GOAL Donor Compliance issues and implement accordingly in area of responsibility.

Requirements: Technical & Functional skills

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting or related field with a minimum of 2 years of related work experience.
• NGO experience would be advantageous, preferably in an audit, finance, or compliance position, experience with/knowledge of institutional donors such as Irish Aid, ECHO, USAID, UN Agencies.
• Excellent writing and spoken communication skill in English.
• Experience in performing audits/reviews of systems/controls.
• Experience in reviewing documents/reports with a keen eye for detail.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills, ability to determine priorities and giving attention to detail.
• High – level skills in MS office application soft ware
• Ability to analyse and synthesize a variety of material in a fast – paced environment.
• Ability to work on their own, a self-starter with high energy levels and the capability to work with in a multi-cultural team.

• Gender sensitive.

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a GOAL staff or partner.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated.  Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible.  This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date.  We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.