Position: Grant and Compliance Officer

Reports to:  Grant and Compliance Manager

SUPERVISES:  N/A

LOCATION:  Addis Ababa Central Office

I.  JOB SUMMARY:

• Amref Health Africa in Ethiopia is seeking a Grants and Compliance Officer to provide grants and compliance support for its USAID funded Integrated Youth Activity (IYA) in Ethiopia. As part of the IYA team, the main responsibility of this position is to oversee grants and compliance management, cost share tracking, and monitoring sub-grantees and contractors grant performance. The Grants and Compliance Officer works collaboratively with team members to ensure compliance with various donors including donor’s rules and regulation and Amref Ethiopia internal policies and procedures. This includes reviewing expenditures, purchase request, financial reports, ensuring timely disbursements and review of partner performance vs. allocated budget and work plan targets.
• Working under the direction of the Grant and Compliance Manager, the Grants and Compliance Officer will collaborate very closely with the Program Director, Finance Manager and other key staff under the project, and other relevant senior program team members who may seek support or input on grants and compliance issues.
• The post holder should be forward looking, self-driven, operating under minimum supervision, and critical thinker in the team. Furthermore, considering the various changes around adaptive management and any expected systemic changes, the post holder should be agile to cope up with those changes. The Grant and Compliance Manager should be committed to train/coach relevant staff members and consortium partners on grants management and compliance matters. The position is based in the Addis Ababa country office with travel to project areas as necessary.

II. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Grants management

• Administer the full grant cycle of sub-award management activities, from solicitation through selection, pre-award assessment, negotiation, monitoring/compliance visits, and closeout efficiently and in a timely fashion in line with Amref guidelines and USAID requirements
• In coordination with the Grant and Compliance Manager, review sub-award agreements and modifications based on agreed procedures. Ensure sub-award agreements include all relevant prime award clauses and flow down all relevant prime donor regulations. Review and confirm any proposed special award conditions with Amref prior to agreement finalization.
• Support the Grants & Compliance Manager in technical support to sub-awardees in management of sub grants by facilitating training and mentoring programs to strengthen their capacity to receive and manage USAID fundings.
• Support the Grants & Compliance Manager in drawing annual action plans with the partners and driving the process of smooth implementation for quality programming
• Undertaking quarterly reviews on the partner’s capacity assessment action plans and continuous follow up to ensure that the capacity gaps are addressed within the stated timelines.
• Provide guidance to partners on development of annual work plans, budgets, MEL plans vis a vis grants and compliance
• Manage subgrants agreements by ensuring compliance with the terms, rules, regulations, legal and donor requirements governing the award
• Lead the team in monthly monitoring of sub-awardee budgets, expenditure tracking, timely reporting and implementation of risk mitigating measures
• Ensure timely, accurate monthly reporting from partners to allow consolidation and submission of the program and finance report within the set timelines
• Review and verification of expenditure, bank reconciliations and other related documentation on a monthly basis
• Work closely with Grants and Compliance Manager to ensure accurate and timely disbursement and liquidation of sub-award expenses. Ensure a comprehensive review of partner budgets
• Maintain an updated grants matrix for each sub-awardee that informs regular decision making as well as used as a reference tool when reviewing partner cash requests
• Work collaboratively with the Finance team and technical staff in monitoring sub-recipient performance and budget to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of sub-award/contract
• Compile, track and monitor cost share and related documentation for IYA
• Monitors and reviews timesheets and payroll documentation
• Create simple tools to support excellence in grants management
• Keep hard and soft grant files up to date; create and manage opportunities on IYA knowledge management portals
• Respond to information requests from field staff and other partner organizations

Compliance management

• Monitor compliance with donor’s ineligibility and compliance checking procedures for sub recipients and contractors.
• Regularly monitor sub-awardees and contractors for compliance issues/concerns within the project are being appropriately evaluated, addressed and resolved.
• Stay up to date on new or changed donor regulations and other compliance requirements, especially focused on how they will affect sub-awards and update sub-award documents and tools as needed for new or changed donor requirements
• Ensure that all Amref and sub-awardee and contractors activities are in line with contractual obligations and agreements with respective donor’s requirement
• Follow up on all sub-award compliance issues and audits and document resolutions.
• Identifies potential areas of projects compliance vulnerability and risk; suggest corrective action plans for resolution of problematic issues
• Support roll-out, training, and implementation of revised processes, policies, templates and other guidance documents in relation to compliance and provide orientation to Ethiopian CSO partners
• Implement and support the implementation by other units of documentation and record retention processes to ensure compliance of operations as required
• Ensure compliance with agency requirements regarding vendors, purchasing regulations, equipment inventory and closing documents
• Conduct regular, planned, and announced compliance reviews for sub-awards
• Develop action plans on all findings and working with partners to initiate the recommendations and close up
• Assist the grant and compliance manager to ensure alignment of compliance policies with the corporate office, as much as possible

• University degree in business administration, accounting, finance or related field
• ACCA/MBA or any other relevant certification.
• Proven experience working of at least six years’ experience working in development programming with knowledge of project cycle management.
• Experience supporting large donor funded project is an advantage, particularly USAID.
• Working knowledge of business management.
• Excellent organizational and communication skills.
• Experience assessing the responsibility and grant-worthiness of organizations through financial statements, audits, and other documentation presented in a proposal or in support of an award.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle the pressure.
• High ethical standards.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).