ASSOCIATE, ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE

JOB DESCRIPTION

ASSOCIATE, ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE

TANAHUN – 1 POSITION

A. ORGANIZATION PROFILE: PADHNAKO LAGI KOTHA (PLK):

Padhnako Lagi Kotha (PLK), the sole official Implementing Partner of Room to Read (RtR), was established in 2002 with a mission to provide better educational opportunities in Government funded community schools of Nepal. PLK started its operation by donating children’s books to Government funded community schools. As PLK started working in more and more villages to uplift the education of children, many villages started to approach PLK for assistance in improving their educational facilities and infrastructure. PLK decides which program to focus on with the community and works with villages that are found to be proactive with sustained interest. Since the start of PLK operations, hundreds of villages have received donated materials, labor, and funds to help their schools and PLK has been facilitating this process for nearly a decade now. PLK has developed a holistic, multi-pronged approach to help children in Nepal gain the lifelong gift of education.

To date, we have partnered with government schools to establish over 4,742 school libraries to encourage a reading habit in primary school children, published 388 children’s books for quality materials to read, constructed over 1,249 schools and renovated 46 schools and supporting to create an enabling learning environment through comprehensive Reading & Writing Instruction program in 1,338 primary classrooms. Through our Girls Education Program, we have supported over 10,571 girls from underprivileged families to complete secondary education and beyond by providing material, academic and life skills education support. We’ve partnered with a local NGO to implement and monitor our programs in our working districts. We have around 118 staff working in Padhnako Lagi Kotha. We are at a growing stage and working to expand our coverage more in the future.

B. Position Overview

The Associate, Administration and Finance will be responsible for carrying out all administration and finance-related tasks including keeping records of all financial transactions at the Field Office (FO) level. The position will provide general help as and when required by members at the field office. The Associate, Administration and Finance will directly report to the Field Manager, Program Operations (FPM). Primary responsibilities of the position include assisting in maintaining all aspects of the organization’s finances and accounting, procurement, filing, liaison, inventory control, vehicle arrangement, handling petty cash and requesting funds to Kathmandu Office for meeting expenditures at the FO level.  The position will have regular interactions with all colleagues.

C. Primary duties and responsibilities

The position will require performing the below-given job responsibilities not limited to:

Development & Planning

• Involvement in preparing district Annual Plans & Budgets and Annual Reports.
• Preparation of Partner NGO budget and financial reporting template.
• Coordinate with the Kathmandu office and other District Office colleagues for preparing District Office Annual Plans and Budgets.
• Monthly tracking of budget vs Actual, compiling and analyzing of variance for FPM review.

Implementation

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE

• Check the authenticity of the bills, vouchers, and other supporting documents of FO before the payment to assess the accuracy and completeness of the payment procedure.
• Conduct vetting of vendors through watchdog screening before processing the payment of $500 or above.
• Process all the payments related to Tanahun Office within a reasonable time frame and send the payment confirmation to relevant departments/employees/vendors.
• Ensure all the expenses for a particular month are booked including uploading soft copy documents in the accounting software within the month and coordinating with the other department colleagues/vendors for obtaining related documents on time for booking of financial transactions.
• Assist Supervisor in supervising financial administration of field office thereby, ensuring daily processing of the financial transaction and meeting minimum internal control requirements.
• Proper recording, filing, and retention of accounting and financial records with proper indexing in hardcopy and digital platforms for efficient retrieval.
• Support the Supervisor in partners’ capacity-building activities concerning financial management.
• Carry out banking transactions as per the need.
• Support Program team for collectively verifying partner’s financial expenses review of Partner NGO monthly financial report and ensure the correctness of invoices remotely and are uploaded in the digital platform.
• Coordinate with auditors and the Kathmandu office for providing relevant accounting and financial documents during audits and monitoring & support visits.
• Assist in updating/developing relevant accounting and financial forms & formats.
• Ensure all relevant applicable Internal Policies, Government Acts, Rules, and Regulations comply with financial transactions.
• Ensure local-level taxes are deposited in the relevant office within the timeline.
• Updated monthly fund forecast template for circulation to the budget holder and compile the forecast and check the accuracy of fund forecast sent by Partner NGO.
• Conduct a monthly reconciliation of petty cash, bank, and prepaid expenditure.
• Perform monthly TDS reconciliation and share to Kathmandu Office Finance team. 
• Handle petty cash and ensure it tallies with cash and documents in hand.
• Prepare accounting and finance month-end schedule and upload the relevant documents in SharePoint for the Supervisor's review.
• Perform any other task related to Finance as delegated.
• Provide need-based support to accounting and finance team members.

ADMINISTRATION AND LOGISTICS

• Carry out all administrative-related work including procurement in FO within the budget threshold and Field Units (FU) in coordination with the Administration (Admin) team in the Kathmandu office.
• Overall responsible for logistics support such as: arranging venues for seminars/meetings, arranging for the field visit, etc.
• Maintain and update the record of inventory of fixed assets and other materials available in the FO and FU together with proper management of the store.
• Keep a record of the monthly vehicle mobility of field staff.
• Pay house rent, bills, utilities and other relevant activities at the FO.
• Ensure that repair and maintenance of the office assets, including two-wheeler vehicles are done regularly.
• Procure goods and services as appropriate.
• Carry out prequalification of local vendors in coordination with the Admin team in the Kathmandu Office. 
• Collect quotations and prepare comparison sheets for procuring the materials locally at the FO level following all requirements suggested by the Kathmandu office as well as Government regulations.
• Prepare consultants’ and vendors’ agreements including annual maintenance contracts as per the need.
• Keep records of all documents and correspondence; file it and maintain the systematic filing in the organization. 
• Collect and forward documents, parcels, and materials sent from FO and forward them to the Kathmandu office and vice versa. 
• Carry out other functions as per need and periodically and rationally suggested by the supervisor.
• Support and supervise the outsourced office support staff as per the role assigned.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Conduct Financial monitoring visit to Partner NGOs (PNGO) under the FO cluster at least twice a year for each PNGO for cross-verification of reported expenditure and submits the report in the standard format for recommendation and action plan.
• Provide timely support, necessary orientation, on-site coaching to PNGO and program staff for the improvement of their financial mechanism and follow the organizational standard.
• Analyze budget and expenditure, recommend ways of being cost effective and reduce variance on budget utilization.
• Visit program schools to ensure the materials delivered by PNGO/Program are properly delivered and the documents are properly kept.

Reporting

• Prepare accounting and finance month-end schedule and upload the relevant documents in SharePoint for the Supervisor and Kathmandu Finance review.
• Assist in preparing justification and full-year estimate on monthly financial budget vs actual.

D. Person Specifications

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in management. 
• A minimum of 1 year of professional experience in administration and finance. 
• Strong planning, supervising, and time management skills.
• Knowledge of government regulation in relation to procurement and accounting.
• Ability to travel frequently to districts throughout the country.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English and Nepali. 
• Proven track record of achieving results. 
• Superior interpersonal abilities.
• Detailed oriented. 
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Strong Computer skills in MS package especially in Excel.
• Good reasoning abilities, Sound judgment.
• Good numerical skills.
• Resourceful and well organized
• Ability to establish credibility and be decisive – but be able to recognize and support the organization's preferences and priorities.

Preferred:

• Semi-qualified CA/ACCA 
• Three years experience in administration and finance (preferably in Development Sector)

Compensation:

Padhnako Lagi Kotha offers a competitive salary with excellent benefits; benefits including 13th month bonus, provident fund, medical insurance for employees and their dependents, accidental insurance for employees; leaves and employee professional development. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, fun, and rapidly growing organization that is changing, transforming the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.

To be successful as a member of the PLK team, you will also: 

a) Have a passion for our mission and a strong desire to impact a dynamic nonprofit organization

b) Be an innovative and creative thinker that tries new things and inspires others to do so

c) Have a strong work ethic, professional integrity, and trustworthiness and require minimal direction

d) Work well independently as well as part of a team

e) Thrive in a fast-paced and fun environment

f) Superior interpersonal abilities. Ability to get along with diverse personalities, tactful, mature, flexible

g) Good reasoning abilities, Sound judgment

h) Resourceful and well organized

i) Participative management style-advocate of a team concept

Padhnako Lagi Kotha, the sole implementing partner of Room to Read Nepal is a child-safe organization; all personnel are expected to adhere to the organization’s Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.

Application Procedure:

Interested applicants can visit the below link for a detailed job description and to apply for this position:  Careers (myworkdayjobs.com)

E-mail or drop-in applications will not be entertained for this position.

In case you are not able to access our website, please send us an e-mail request to nepal.hiring@roomtoread.org

Last date for application: June 06, 2023

www.roomtotead.org