CARE Kenya Grants Officers Jobs and Careers in Kenya

CARE International in Kenya is looking for an experienced and highly motivated individual who is result-oriented to fill the following position:

Grants Officer - Global Fund HIV Program

Ref: (GO/12/2011)

Based in Nairobi

2 Positions

Reporting to the Grants Coordinator, the incumbent shall oversee sub-recipients grants coordination & contract compliance, monitoring & evaluation and provide budget management support for the program.

S/he will work closely with peer level program officers and grants accountants to ensure that all program obligations are realized, accounted for, documented and reported.

Job Title: Grants Officer

Department / Project: Global Fund

Supervisor: Grants Coordinator

Location / Duty Station: Nairobi

Grade: F

Job Summary & Purpose:

The Grants Officer (s) shall report to Grants Coordinator, Global Fund Round 7, HIV & AIDS.

He/She shall get day to day grants management and technical support from the line manager while working closely with peer level program officers and grants accountants; shall get day to day management support from program and program support units to support effective administration functions of the Grants Officer position.

The Grants Officer (s) shall keep the Program team (Grants Coordinator, Program Quality Coordinator and Program Manager) informed of all processes and procedures related to grants performance.

The purpose of the Grants Officer (s) position is to support the Grants Coordinator in managing and coordinating all financial aspects of the program to ensure there is optimal compliance with contract obligations.

In order to achieve this, the Grants Officer (s), shall support the finalization and operationalization of the program grants management systems and cycles; specifically the GF sub grants and GF operational manuals, CARE Kenya financial systems and CARE Kenya Operational manuals, support interpretation and enforcement of all contract obligations in sub recipient contracts,TA and operational budgets; provide on going support and supervision to sub reciepients to comply with standard contract clauses to enhance compliance, provide technical advise on financial, grants and governance management components during field technical support visits while also implementing technical and capacity building on financial systems strengthening, to ensure sub contractor systems are supportive to GF contract compliance; identify risks to contract compliance and inform management on timely basis.

Where need be, the grants officers shall support the setting up of grants management systems for sub recipients.

The grants officer (s) shall support the Grants Coordinator in developing grants portfolio performance reports with a view to monitoring and ensuring that CARE and contractor budgets are effectively and timely utilized as per program work plan(Service Delivery Area (SDA) and targets, review sub recipients financial reports submitted against program targets and sub reciepient contract provisions in consultation with project officers; and support preparation of annual sub recipients and PR GF Program audits.

The Grants Officers shall support the Grants Coordinator in operationalizing sub recipient contracts to ensure that they are in harmony with the GF contract conditions; and CAREs sub grants policies and operational manuals, capture grants conditionalities as per sub recipient assessment reports and ensure that the program complies to statutory obligations.

The grants officers shall support sub recipients interaction with CAREs operational systems to reduce bottlenecks to grants flow, compliance and reporting.

The grants officers shall support the Grants Coordinator in timely preparation of CAREs requests for funds disbursement in line with grants timelines, ensure that sub recipients prepare timely requests, ensure timely flow of disbursements to sub recipients and contractors, ensure timely preparation of funds utilization reports per recipients and support timely consolidation of financial and program reporting for funds allocated, disbursed, utilized and accounted for; support the review and operationalization of tools for financial requests, documentation and reporting to ensure that funds are reconciled on a monthly basis and as at reporting schedules as stipulated in contracts, enhance team work within the GF unit, CARE program and program support units and enhance and strengthen partnerships and synergies within the GF program partners in the country.

He/she will work closely with the program officers to support adherance to all financial contract compliance aspects by ensuring that funds are clearly programed and that targets are clearly costed and contracted by supporting sub recipients development and review of budgets to ensure harmony with program performance targets, (financial and program targets),work plan per required timelines, funds utilization is adequately documented, accounted for, reported and cleared.

A key indicator of success of the position will be the realization of full contract compliance per sub recipient; that targets contracted and financed per service delivery area and operational areas are fully accounted for within the program period under which they are utilized; and that the program is cleared in all audits to the PR and SR.

Tasks and responsibilities

R 1: Global Fund Rd 7 Program Grants and Contract and Compliance

Tasks

With Technical support from Grants Coordinator, coordinate all sub recipients (allocated to your supervision) program financial compliance to ensure optimal performance of the phase 1 performance based contract including and not limited to;-


1. Sub recipients Grants Coordination and Contract compliance enforcement and coordination by;-

1.1. Support the grants coordinator in the review and finalization of the program grants management systems and cycles notably; review the sub recipients accounting manual, GF operational manual and M&E framework and ensure to provide feedback on indicators for grants compliance and tracking

1.2. Develop specific sub recipients grants and contract management work plan and (sub sets of the work plan) and share these with the Grants Coordinator, for review and consolidation for use in preparing the PMF(Project Monitoring Folder) and in doing so identifying and lifting core contract components per sub recipient and mechanisms for supporting sub recipients implementation of the same.

Work with sub recipients to ensure the internalization of contractual clauses (standards and conditions), support their development of actions (work plan) for implementing conditions in the grant agreement and jointly identify indicators for results of tracking conditions by dates, support partners identification of partners and provide CAREs support required to support these components and working with them as appropriate to ensure conditions are met as per GF requirements.

Develop reports and share with grants coordinator and Program manager highlighting risks and challenges foreseen on contract compliance.

1.3. As per 1.2. above, sharing these with the Grants coordinator for review and approval as the components that require management oversight and actions and review these on a weekly basis (or as per specific sub recipient conditions) with milestones indicated on progress towards meeting the contractual obligations.

1.4. Support grants manager in developing grants and contract management work plan for the program by ensuring that all conditions and standard provisions have been identified and partners grants and contract management plans have been taken on board (as per 1.2. above)

1.5. Support the grants coordinator in the interpretation of institutional assessment reports with a view to develop conditions per sub recipient and ensure that they are captured in sub recipient contracts with clear timelines for meeting them and and provisions for non compliance

1.6. In liaison with the program officers and upon development of work plans and budgets, timely prepare sub recipient contracts taking on board conditions of institutional assessments, GF standard conditions as interpreted by the grants coordinator and as per the CARE GF contract are well articulated per sub recipient contracts. Ensure the contracts are reviewed by grants coordinator.

1.7. Coordinating sub recipients compliance to VAT conditions in the GF contract by supporting the grants coordinator in drafting requests for VAT exceptions with the Government of Kenya, and following up to ensuring that conditions to VAT refunds are made per receipts or as shall be advised upon CAREs follow up on VAT exceptions.

Ensure that partners processes for VAT compliance are documented and management minutes on such VAT discussions are fully documented and shared per sub recipient (or as the case shall be).

This shall involve working through the advise and technical support of the GF grants coordinator and program officers designated per sub recipient organizations and government departments (Ministry of Finance), NACC and other departments as shall be guided by the enquiries and CAREs management.

1.8. Support the grants coordinator in developing indicators for measuring compliance to sub contractor clauses (as per 1.5 and 1.6. above) and in consultation with program officers and grants coordinator, ensure these are consolidated by the program quality coordinator and lifted in sub recipient field monitoring forms for use by the grants and program officers during field supervision visits as shall be required from time to time

1.9. Develop in consultation with contact program officers field monitoring work plans and share these for review by the grants coordinator and program quality coordinator and upon approval of the program manager implement these, with a view to strengthening sub recipients oversight, identification of risks and taking actions to minimize risks to grants misappropriation.

1.10. Prepare field grants monitoring reports at least 3 days or earlier, as the case may present, ensuring that you develop clear action points and timelines for follow up after field supervision visits and share these with the grants coordinator and program quality coordinator for review and further advise

1.11. Develop key points of lessons or challenges encountered during grants coordination and administration and share these with the grants coordinator for consideration while developing presentations for grants management sessions

1.12. Proactively and timely identify financial and governance risks of individual sub recipients and communicate these in writing to CAREs management through the grants coordinator

1.13. Prepare, on a timely basis, requests for support from key departments and individuals through the grants coordinator, matters related to contract management and compliance and ensure timely follow up i.e. financial reporting, funds transfer/disbursements, procurements, among others

1.14. Implement the GF operations manual, sub grants management, financial and sub grants policies and procedures to ensure effective CAREs, sub recipients and sub contractors compliance to terms and conditions as well as systems and processes.

1.15. Support the grants coordinator and program manager to develop funds disbursement requests to Global Fund

1.16. Develop sub recipients portfolio performance after undertaking individual sub contractor reconciliations and identifying actions needed per sub recipient and timely share these with the grants coordinator to consolidate and develop grants portfolio performance on a on a monthly basis. Upon decisions on actions required per sub recipient based on the portfolio performance reports, develop action points for follow up, monitoring and tracking while keeping the grants coordinator informed

1.17. Review individual sub recipients financial expense reports in consultation and jointly with program officer in order to ensure harmony in program targets achieved and funds utilization on a monthly basis and as often as reports are submitted, provide feedback to contact program officer and grants coordinator for actions that are required for onward communication and follow up. To ensure optimal compliance, the reports must be reviewed against contractual requirements and in line with budget provisions.

1.18. Provide technical capacity building for identified capacity building needs during sessions (on-site or workshop sessions) for sub recipients and staff on grants management to enhance grants compliance and performance

1.19. Support the grants coordinator in drafting management letters to sub recipients and or addendums for review of contracts in time, upon identification of needs and upon advise and request by the grants coordinator and share these for review and approval by the program advisor (sector manager) or CAREs management through the grants coordinator and the program manager

1.20. Document, file while referencing all correspondences by date and per sub recipient and periodically review actions taken to ensure that that all concerns raised in contracts, correspondences are well addressed and therefore enhance optimal contract compliance.

1.21. Support the grants coordinator and the PM in the preparation, review and production of program reports (inclusive of financial components)

1.22. Consolidate and share list of program assets inventory held by sub recipients to grants coordinator for consolidation and ensuring reporting as per donor requirements and CARE Kenya policies and regulations.

1.23. Support the grants coordinator and PM in preparation of PR annual audits and lead the coordination of contact sub recipients annual audits in consultation with grants coordinator and as shall be advised by the program manager while ensuring provision of timely, accurate and authentic responses to program audit queries

1.24. Support the GF program team in timely preparation of program applications for phase 2

1.25. Support the grants manager in the development and operationalization of program management folder specifically in the preparation of the grants management plan, taking into consideration all components of the sub grants management cycle including and not limited to; timelines for funds disbursement requests per sub recipient, disbursement transfers, processes for sub contractor budget preparations and contracting, technical support visits to partners, financial and budget systems review during TA visits to sub contracted sub recipients, financial reporting reviews against contracted targets, developing and operationalizing monitoring plans for funds utilization against activity implementation and review reconciliation reports produced by the sub recipients and support the grants coordinator in reviewing monthly financial reports submitted by finance.

1.26. Ensure funds disbursement requests by sub recipients are cleared on timely basis by the grants coordinator, program quality coordinator and program manager and work closely with grants accountants to facilitate timely disbursement of funds to sub recipients and as per signed sub grants contracts and CK policies.

1.27. Facilitate timely liquidation of outstanding advances as per the accepted financial accounting documents from CSO partners

1.28. Facilitate effective communication regarding sub recipients financial obligations and accounting issues between grants accountants, finance department, grants coordinator, program quality coordinator, program manager and program advisor (Sector Manager).

R 2: GF Budget Management Support

Tasks

1.1. Support the grants coordinator, program quality coordinator, PM and program advisor (SM) in preparation and allocation of sub recipients budgets, while ensuring that all work plan targets per partners are effectively budgeted and calculated, and are within approved budgets

1.2. With technical support from the grants coordinator, support contact sub recipients in developing and operationalizing GF program budget and grants tracking tool, and provide technical training for sub recipient program managers to ensure that all transactions undertaken are posted in the budget tracking tool on a daily basis for purposes of ensuring that partners are able to effectively manage GF program budgets and ease financial and program reporting. Periodically and at a minimum review budget utilization per sub recipient and prepare portfolio performance and share these with grants coordinator for review, consolidation for the program and advise for decision making.

1.3. provide training and support to sub recipients in the utilization of budget tracking, procurement plan and costed work plan templates as developed by the lead of the grants coordinator; Ensure contact sub recipients utilization of the templates and compliance and provide feedback to grants coordinator, PM and Sector Manager after partner visits.

1.4. Provide training support to the grants coordinator to the project officers and GF program team in the utilization of grants management templates and provide technical support during ongoing implementation to ensure effective CARE and sub recipients budget management

1.5. Undertake monthly review of budget utilization by sub recipients and undertake reconciliation of the GF accounts against budget utilization, and advise grants coordinator and management as appropriate

1.6. Support timely preparation of donor financial reports and that all expenses incurred by sub recipients are dully accounted for while those not accounted are fully explained; while ensuring that all taxation matters are addressed and that there is harmony in program and financial reports submitted by contact sub recipients and generated by CARE before submission of reports for review to LFA and GF

1.7. Timely provide response to budget queries raised by grants coordinator, PM, program quality coordinator, program advisor (sector Manager), finance counterparts and program management teams.

1.8. Ensure effective implementation of all CARE financial and operational and administrative policies and procedures while undertaking budget management roles.

1.9. Support preparation of funds management presentations to GF forums that may be called by management and GF partners in the country, upon request by grants coordinator, PM, Program advisor (SM) and management.

1.10. Attending GF coordination meetings as shall be advised among other program coordination meetings as shall be relevant and upon consultation with line manager and management

R3: Program Grants monitoring, evaluation and Reporting

Tasks

1.1. Provide support to grants coordinator in documenting processes for meeting conditions precedent, standard conditions such as minutes of meetings, processes and deliverables, management letters among others that CARE will use to support decisions made on key contractual issues. These may include partner selection processes and tools used for assessment of capacities, minutes of selection of auditors among others

1.2. Support the grants coordinator in develop grants monitoring forms as per items; 1.8., 2.2. 2.3 and 2.4 (indicators for measuring compliance, field grants monitoring forms, budget tracking tools’, procurement plans and costed work plans ( PR and SR) and utilize these in effecting monitoring and evaluation of performance of the grant to ensure optimal utilization and success of the program

1.3. Review the M&E framework developed for GF Rd 7 program with a view to informing management for review to incorporating grants management indicators and monitor grants indicators performance for contact sub recipients in liason and close working relationship with contact project officers on a monthly basis or as need arises.

1.4. Support the grants coordinator in developing and operationalizing an electronic grants information and data management system and ensure to update the information per contact sub recipient per transaction and upon receipt of information from sub recipients reporting on a monthly basis.

1.5. Generate reports of monitoring of the grants performance per contact sub recipients and share on a monthly basis to the grants coordinator, PM and program advisor during monthly program planning and review meetings or as shall be advised from time to time

1.6. Monitor sub recipients utilization of grants monitoring tools developed for use by CARE and sub recipients for the GF program and share these reports as per 3.5. Above.

1.7. Support the grants coordinator, program quality coordinator and PM in the organization and coordination of field monitoring visits for program and grants officers to ensure cost effectiveness, technically sound support and that sub recipients are supported effectively and that grants monitoring information from sub recipients monitoring is as accurate as possible;

1.8. Document all processes and grants monitoring sessions held with sub recipients, CAREs GF program grants monitoring sessions, GF partner sessions in Kenya i.e. CCM and HIV ICC where information on grants is shared and decisions arrived at; for use in backing CAREs decisions and audit information

1.9. Support the grants coordinator, program quality coordinator and PM in the development of TORs for program evaluations (mid term) and financial capacity building sessions to ensure that grants and financial issues are well articulated; support technical review of consultancy applications ensuring that concise assessment criteria is developed and operationalized; provide technical oversight to program financial related consultancies for contact sub recipients to ensure deliverables are met to stipulated standards and document clients feedback; timely follow up with grants accountants in processing of payments for such engagements

1.10. Support the grants coordinator in developing components of grants program progress for sharing with the PM to consolidate these as s/he prepares the Program management update reports for sharing with the country management team to keep them updated on the progress of the GF program. The reports should reflect progress in achieving targets, conditions precedent and standard conditions, sub recipients compliance to contractual obligations, risks assessment per sub recipient, decisions made by GF actors in country specific to grants and impacts on the GF program, support required from program and program support teams to enhance success of program and overall aspects across the components of the PMF

R4: Partnership Strengthening, Technical Assistance, Lessons Learnt and Knowledge sharing (5%)

Tasks

1.29. Support grants coordinator and PM in organizing partner review meetings while developing key points and grants performance review presentations to various actors, in order to inform challenges, lessons learnt and promising practices for purposes of improving performance and knowledge sharing in the program

1.30. Identify and project financial and governance related technical assistance needs for addressing capacity weaknesses based on capacity assessment reports and field technical support sessions, support the development and and implement Capacity Building (CB) and technical assistance (TA) plans

1.31. Establish good working relationship with the GF program team, sector grants officers and program teams and cordially work with all care program and program support teams and during the course of your interaction with other GF actors, cordially coordinate with other GF departments within the Ministry of Finance (PR), NACC and CCM (and other actors) to facilitate smooth program implementation, nurture support for continued application for funding as is crucial to enhancing programming, sub recipients, development partners and other crucial programs.

1.32. Coordinate with other CARE Kenya Program and Project Managers in enhancing grants management functions in the sector and country office and improvement of Health and HIV programming in the country office.

1.33. If required, Coordinate and host donors, CI and senior program management field visits

1.34. With support of the grants coordinator, GF program team, and technical staff in the sector (Senior Project Officer and M&E Coordinator) support the development of a system to identify and document grants management promising practices within the GF and CO program and develop a system for sharing these.

1.35. Support the grants coordinator, program quality coordinator and PM in organizing partner review and sharing sessions for CARE and partners to present program progress, lessons learnt and best practices to enhance performance of the GF Rd 7 grant

R5: Strengthen CAREs performance in Grants Management and Health Programming and other duties as assigned (5%)

Tasks

1.1. Support enhanced management cohesion of Health/HIV and CSO sector projects/programs, CO programs and staff, including management of Office operations. Undertake any other relevant duty duties as assigned by supervisor or management that enhance CAREs mission.

1.2. Strengthen CAREs grants management roles and health sector programming including capacity strengthening for health services delivery, rights programming and use of RBA approaches based on lessons learnt in implementing the GF program, especially for vulnerable and hard to reach groups and all other aspects as requested from time to time.

1.3. Support CAREs achievement of strategic interventions as outlined in the strategic plan, program principles and other frameworks

1.4. Support other grants and program development efforts in the sector and country office and other duties as assigned by the supervisor

Authority:

1. Spending Authority: N/A

2. Supervision: N/A

3. Decision Making:

Contacts/Key Relationships (Internal & External):

Internal: Works as a peer and closely with Program Officers to manage a program portfolio for a specific number of sub-recipients (5 according to reviewed program structure) and closely with Grants Accountants. Receives technical support from the Grants Coordinator, Program Manager and Program Quality Coordinator, and seeks and gets on going technical support from the sector grants coordinator, finance department especially the finance Manager and the CO Budget and Grants Manager. The position also works closely with the audit and compliance unit staff.

External: The position is the point of contact for eight sub-recipients and offers day to day support to the sub recipients in grants management, financial reporting, and technical assistance related to grants management. The position also comes into contact with other external parties e.g. auditors and program stakeholders including the LFA, CCM, National AIDS Control Council, Ministry of Finance (Government PR), Ministries of Medical Services and Public Health and Sanitation.

Working Conditions:

Normal working conditions in a city setup. However the employee may have to contend with traffic congestion during peak hours. The employee will undertake frequent field visits sub-recipients project locations (50%) to verify financial information reported by SRs and to officer technical support and supportive supervision. This includes travel toremote areas and therefore has exposure to road and air travel risks and security risks.

Qualifications:

1. Education:

Bachelor of Commerce, accounting option, Masters in Business Administration (Finance), CPA-K and Trainings on financial management; Coupled with at least 2 years of experience in Grant Management capacity in grants making programs in reputable organizations.

2. Experience:

Previous work in HIV and Health grant programs will be an added advantage

3. Certificate:

• Competencies:
• Familiarity with GF systems and procedures and performance based funding,
• Demonstrable program budget and grant management skills and experience
• Understanding and experience in HIV programming in Kenya will be an added advantage
• Ability and experience to develop and implement grant performance management and monitoring plans
• Excellent inter-personal, facilitation skills and communication skills
• Ability to work well in a team and provide staff leadership
• Person of high moral character and professional integrity

Applications

If you feel you meet the requirements for any of these positions, send your application letter indicating the reference number , title of the position along with an updated CV and telephone contacts of three professional referees to:

The Human Resources & Development Manager,
CARE International in Kenya,
Email: Vacancies@care.or.ke

so as to be received not later than 6th January, 2011.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

CARE is an equal opportunity employer and promotes gender equity.

Canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification.

CARE International in Kenya does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. (Application, interview, meeting, processing, training or any other fees).