BACKGROUND & ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Office of Financial Management (OFM), Bureau for Management Services, supports the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the promotion of its sustainable human development agenda. It achieves this by developing and making fully operational a dynamic and harmonized integrated resource management framework based on comprehensive analysis that enhances UNDP’s financial and administrative performance, as well as facilitates UN reform and coherence. To these ends, the framework addresses strategically critical financial resource planning and management issues, including results based budgeting;  the integration of the Programming Arrangements and the Institutional Budget within the context of the integrated; enhanced cost classification and cost recovery;  capital budgeting; adherence to IPSAS;  foreign exchange and investment activities; corporate reporting of organizational assets; performance management tools and initiatives;  and support to UN harmonization.

Effective and efficient integrated resources management is enabled through a continuous and robust process comprising of:

• Formulation and implementation of corporate financial and administrative strategies, policies and procedures.
• Formulation, alignment, documentation, and implementation of UNDP’s funding frameworks, assuring their integrity, viability and alignment with the Strategic Plan
• Provision of policy guidance, advisory services and operational support to strengthen client capacities and help them achieve results, seeking to build consensus within UNDP and with key stakeholders on critical budgetary related matters requiring Executive Board legislation.
• Administration of the organization’s internal control framework, overseeing and monitoring financial management of all global UNDP offices, including through formulation/implementation of resource planning, management and oversight tools and reports.
• Promoting clear accountability for financial transactions and producing financial statements, including financial reporting to donors and the UNDP Executive Board.
• Providing corporate reporting guidance to ensure that fixed assets are adequately recorded in all locations.

The Financial Performance Management and Reporting (FPMR) Unit is the part of the Office of Financial Management (OFM) that is responsible for establishing the financial performance framework, policy and parameters in line with the corporate goals and UNDP’s Strategic Plan.

The Finance Analyst reports directly to Chief, Payroll Finance Oversight (PFO). PFO is part of the Financial Performance Management and Reporting (FPMR) unit within OFRM. The Finance Analyst provides financial accounting, monitoring and analysis for of all payroll expenses and payroll-related balance sheet accounts. The incumbent will work very closely with the Global Payroll Services (GPS) team and the Benefit Entitlement Services (BES) team within the Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) to improve all significant payroll finance related processes, review specific higher risk transactions and issues in order to provide assurance on the IPSAS compliance of financial recording and reporting of employee related expenses and liability and minimize any audit observations.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

KEY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

1.Ensures effective payroll finance oversight and policy:

• Reviews and revises, as necessary, to the policy and procedures related to payroll payments and expenses in the Statement of Financial Performance and payroll-related entries in the Statement of Financial Position including inter-agency receivables/payables, third party payables, tax reporting and long-term employee benefits.
• Reviews the internal control environment over payroll systems and related process controls. This includes reviewing the Quantum system controls (application controls) in Oracle’s Human Capital Management (HCM) module to propose system enhancement to strengthen the control environment, promote efficiency and capacity of the payroll finance oversight function (i.e. enabling system audit trail)
• Review of payroll account mapping from Quantum Human Capital Management (HCM) Module element through to the General Ledger (GL) capturing both UNDP staff expenses and agency outsourced service including Quantum system configuration.
• Review and propose process redesign of the payroll centralized processes involving the roles and responsibilities for payroll processing and accounting and oversight including the segregation of duties of OHR, GSSC and OFM based on industry best practices on payroll processing and recording in line with applicable IPSAS standards.
• Conducts technical reviews on payroll-related SOPs.
• Lead the design and development of appropriate payroll related tools, including monitoring reports (i.e. exception reports), financial reports, financial models, dashboards in order to facilitate adequate monitoring of payroll accounts by HQ and Offices. Supports periodic financial reporting, including all employee benefits in accordance with IPSAS.
• Lead on various other payroll matters including tax reporting, long term employee benefits, pension reporting and reconciliation for all UNDP and UNDP-administered staff, including inter-agency transfer of employee liabilities, reimbursable loan agreements, staff receivables/ advances, accruals and leave management.
• Monitors salary advances as well as Education Grant advances and liaise with offices on compliance issues, unrecovered balances, and potential bad debts.

2. Perform operational functions:

• Proposes the strategy for the monitoring of payroll-related GL accounts.
• Monitors transactions related to employee payroll related GL accounts to ensure compliance with IPSAS and UNDP’s policies and procedures.
• Carry out Payroll related GL account reviews on significant and higher risk payroll accounts on a periodical basis.
• Reviews the reconciliation exercise between Quantum HCM and GL.
• Reviews and validates staff advance related accounts including furnishing regular updates on aged payroll receivables to Offices. Support Offices with clearing aged payroll outstanding balances (if any) including sharing appropriate guidance on submission of write-off request (if required) following UNDP’s standard operating procedure on write-off.
• Engage with Offices to troubleshoot and resolve Payroll related GL account transactions i.e. staff advances HCM ICP module.
• Review various adjustment journals related to Payroll related GL accounts.
• Closely working with ITM and Infosys on Payroll related GL accounts enhancements on Quantum configuration requirements and testing to ensure that Offices and Regional Bureau platform concerns are resolved.
• Review complex data, undertakes various analyses, and liaises with consultant actuaries as needed to determine organizational liabilities in the area of employee benefits, particularly End of Service (After-Service Health Insurance (ASHI), Repatriation and Death benefits), Worker’s Compensation, Annual Leave, Home Leave, Pensions and UNDP’s Medical Insurance Plan (MIP).
• Lead the review on the work of the Third-Party Administrator (TPA). Ensures TPA performance by review of the annual Stewardship Report and monitoring of claims disbursement in accordance with the Plan design and payments process.
• Lead in the development of policy and leads business process changes needed for proper use of time cards and drives the process for preparation and effective management of standard costs.

3. Facilitate audit related matters:

• Key liaison on audit related matters relating to payroll accounts with stakeholders, Office of Audit & Investigation (OAI) and United Nations Board of Auditors (UNBOA).

4. Ensure facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing on financial matters:

• Organize and conduct training for the operations/programme/projects staff on financial management and RBM.
• Assist in providing regular training and technical guidance/advice on audit and compliance matters, including implementation of Internal Control Framework (ICF).
• Synthesize lessons learned and best practices in Finance.
• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
• Any other deliverables assigned by supervisor.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Education

• A professional accounting qualification from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy.
• Advanced (Master’s) University Degree in Finance and/or Accounting is required. A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s Degree) in Finance and/or Accounting in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

• Minimum 2 years (with Master’s Degree) or 4 years (with Bachelor’s Degree) of relevant experience in financial management positions with large international organizations is required.
• At least 2 years of audit experience in a large public auditing firm is desirable.
• A sound understanding of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is required.
• Familiarity with international development, preferably the UN system, will be an added advantage.
• Proven experience in analytical capabilities with distinct knowledge of current analytical applications and tools is desirable.
• Experience with ERP financials, preferably Oracle is desired.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage, particularly Spanish or French.

COMPETENCIES

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

Cross-Functional & 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 – Financial Risk Management

Ensures financial resilience through proactive assessment of risk, implementation of controls and taking mitigating action. Understands risk and reward in relation to collaborative and commercial projects. Ensures a culture of positive risk management.

• Finance – Financial Reporting and Analysis

Understands changes in regulatory, legal and ethical frameworks and standards for financial reporting in the public sector. 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. Understands the benefits of integrated reporting, including non-financial resources such as human, social and intellectual capital, and environmental and governance performance.

• Finance – Financial and Process Innovation

Financial and business process engineering expertise required to innovate, design, change and implement new financial business models, financial instruments, financing opportunities, business processes, policies and procedures, and technological solutions.

• Business Management – Portfolio Management

Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment.

• Business Direction & Strategy – 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.

• Business Management – Risk Management

Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.