Finance and Budget Assistant

Org. Setting and Reporting

This position is located in the Payroll and Accounts Payable Section of the Division of Administration (DA) in the Department of Operational Support (DOS). The Department of Operational Support was established to provide operational advisory services to operating entities across the Secretariat, including other departments, offices away from headquarters, field missions, and regional commissions. The Payroll and Accounts Payable Section processes global payroll and payments, provides policy advice and operational guidance, testing and implementation of enhancements. The Finance and Budget Assistant will report to the Chief of the Section.

Responsibilities

Within delegated authority, the Finance and Budget Assistant will be responsible for the following duties:

Budget:

• Assists in the preparation of supporting documents (narrative and supporting tables) with respect to finalization of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements.
• Supports the Finance/Budget Officer in extracting information and generating expenditure reports from computerized information system databases; assists in preliminary analyses of the extracted information and the reports generated, and highlights areas of concern for the attention of the Finance/Budget Officer.
• Assists in the development of resource requirements for budget submissions and in the preparation of budget performance submissions.
• Researches/compiles data and other information required by the Finance Budget Officer in the review and analysis of relevant proposals.
• Consolidates data and provides support to Finance/Budget Officer with respect to budget reviews of relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies.
• Assists the Finance/Budget Officer in the preparation/finalization of budget performance reports, performing preliminary analysis of variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures.
• Prepares pre-encumbrances and obligations in IMIS and reviews them to ensure that funds are available and the correct account has been used.
• Assists in drafting the initial versions of the Financial Aspects section of the Secretary-General’s reports to the Security Council, draft resolutions and Reports of the Fifth Committee for peacekeeping operations and the Annotated Agenda for peacekeeping items.
• Assists the Finance/Budget Officer with data input in the budget instructions for peacekeeping operations.
• Assists in the financial backstopping of trust funds, including monitoring the status of voluntary contributions, generating expenditure reports from UMOJA and monitoring reporting requirements by donors.
• Assists the Finance/Budget Officer in the issuance of allotments and related staffing table authorizations.
• Verifies accuracy of input data, ensuring consistency of data in previous allotments to new allotments issued.
• Reviews draft reports, verifying overall accuracy, consistency and uniformity in the presentation, and ensuring comprehensiveness and compliance with the format prescribed by the Editorial and Documents control of GACM; cross-checks consistency of figures in tables with the text of the reports, and verifies references to other reports and documents, bringing errors to the attention of the Finance/Budget Officer concerned; ensures that all necessary corrections are incorporated in the reports; co-ordinates with other finance and budget staff on related issued during preparation of budget reports.

Claims:

• Verifies and prepares less complex payments to third parties, commercial entities, and individuals, with respect to settlement of certified death and disability, contingent-owned equipment, stores, pay and allowances, and letters of assist claims.
• Process travel claims/expense reports and performs data entry and extraction functions.
• Generates travel claims reports, budgetary or peacekeeping financing reports, including statistical/financial data for tables, charts and spreadsheets using office software and templates.
• Monitors processes and schedules related unit outputs, products, tasks, etc.; where applicable, assists in the verification of receipt and accuracy of requisite documents, approvals, signatures, etc., to ensure compliance with relevant legal, financial, and other requirements.
• Assists with the monitoring and review of the open items in the travel claims.
• Investigates erroneous charges and takes appropriate corrective accounting actions as part of the review of rejected GL.
• Investigates and processes the relevant journal voucher to clear the open items in the travel accounts.
• Assists in reviewing various accounting transactions, e.g., travel claims, travel payments, to ensure correctness of the disbursements and adherence to relevant staff rules, financial regulations and rules, ST/AI issuances or practices.

Finance:

• Records and reconciles more complex accounting transactions.
• Examines and records financial transactions of Offices-away-from-Headquarters/Peacekeeping Missions/other UN organisations and prepares remittances for disbursement.
• Reconciles more complex bank accounts in various currencies.
• Assists in the processing of payments to governments, and vendors for goods and services. This includes, amongst other things, calculating, inputting, and checking payments for correctness and communicating discrepancies to supervisors.
• Assists in processing payments to staff members for their entitlements including salaries, claims, education grants and income tax.
• Drafts/prepares memoranda and/or faxes to various offices, departments and overseas offices.
• Responds to queries from staff members and third parties.
• Performs other duties as may be required.

General:

• Keeps up-to-date on documents/reports/guidelines that have a bearing on matters related to programme and/or peacekeeping budgets, ensuring compliance with intergovernmental recommendations and decisions as well as with United Nations policies and procedures.
• Drafts or prepares correspondence to respond to enquiries in respect to relevant financial and budget matters.
• Maintains and keeps up-to-date files.
• Provides administrative support to the Head of the organizational unit and/or Finance/Budget Officer, as required.
• Performs other related duties, as assigned.

Education

• High School diploma or equivalent is required.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five years of experience in accounting, finance, budget, administrative services or related area is required. The minimum years of relevant experience is reduced to three years for candidates who possess a first-level university degree or higher. Experience in the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as Umoja, SAP or equivalent is desirable. Experience in processing payroll, vendor/travel claims settlement in an international organization is desirable. Experience using a Customer Relationship Management tool such as iNeed is desirable. Experience with Staff Rules and Regulations including entitlements and Financial Regulations, Rules and procedures of the United Nations or similar international organization is desirable.

Languages

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

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/245700?language=en