World Bank recruitment for Financial Management Specialists

Job Family: Financial Management Recruitment Type: Local Hire Language Requirement: English (Essential) Slot: 2 Background / General Description Global Practices & Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas:

• The 14 GPs are: Agriculture; Education; Energy and Extractives; Environment and Natural Resources; Finance and Markets; Governance; Health, Nutrition and Population; Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management; Poverty; Social Protection and Labor; Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience; Trade and Competitiveness; Transport and ICT; and Water.
• The 5 CCSAs are: Climate Change; Fragility,Conflict and Violence; Gender; Jobs; and Public-Private Partnerships.
• The new operating model is part of a broader internal reform aimed at delivering the best of the World Bank Group to our clients, so that together we can achieve the twin goals of (1) ending extreme poverty by 2030, and (2) promote shared prosperity for the bottom 40% of the population in every developing country.

The Governance Global Practice: An effective and accountable governance framework, in the form of functioning institutions, is a necessary precondition for sustainable poverty reduction. Fragile, ineffective, weak and/or inexistent institutions have long been put forward as explaining the relative underperformance of economies. Furthermore, poor governance and structural deficiencies in public and private institutions are often prevalent in fragile and conflict affected states. On the other hand, cross-country empirics have confirmed that higher institutional quality is correlated with higher levels of per capita income and greater economic growth. Thus, governance mechanisms and institutions are critical to sustained growth and poverty alleviation. The Governance Global Practice (GGP) comprises a variety of different professional disciplines working on public institutions, including public sector management, governance and anti-corruption, procurement, financial management, social accountability and justice reform. The GGP has the following three departments:

• Financial Accountability and Reporting (FAR) Group that focuses on transparency, financial accountability, and financial reporting in the private and public sectors. This also includes accountability of institutions, oversight bodies and regulators, as well as financial management functions of Bank-funded operations.
• Public Sector and Institutions (PSI) Group that focuses on key areas that underpin public sector and institutional reform. This group also focuses on high priority cross-cutting issues such as revenue mobilization, global tax issues and fiscal decentralization, civil service reforms, open government, and justice for the poor
• Solutions and Innovations in Procurement (SIP) Group that focuses on advancing modern and open
• procurement systems, integrity in procurement and its fiduciary functions.
• The GGP interventions range from diagnostics, technical assistance, and advisory services, learning, innovation and knowledge management and sharing, creating peer learning platforms, lending and project implementation support, and monitoring and reporting. An important part of its responsibilities is to deliver operational support to other Practices, including through inputs for policy-based operations, hands-on implementation advice and direct fiduciary due diligence of investment financing.

Duties and Accountabilities

• As a staff member reporting to the Global Governance Practice Manager in the Africa (AFR) Region, the FMS will be part of the AFR-GGO25 Financial Management Team. The successful applicant will work with teams in the Nigeria Country Office and the Governance GP,  including colleagues in procurement, disbursements, other Global Practices/Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas (CCSA).
• The FMS will assist in carrying out financial management (FM) work in respect of projects financed by the World Bank Group and also assist in advisory and technical assistance tasks. This will include, but is not limited to, assessing the adequacy of project financial management arrangements for new and ongoing projects; monitoring compliance with the Bank’s audit and fiduciary requirements; ensuring that WBG-financed project operations are carried out in accordance with applicable FM policies, procedures, and instructions; and supporting analytical work on FM and public financial accountability.

Responsibilities The specific duties and responsibilities of the FMS will be agreed with the Global Governance Practice Manager – Financial Accountability and Reporting (FAR) -GGO25. He/she is expected to perform a full range of operational FM duties, working under the supervision of a more senior staff. He/she will take a leading role in the following tasks:

• Carry out FM assessments for new projects and FM supervision assessments for ongoing projects covering project budgeting, internal controls, accounting, treasury/funds flow, financial reporting, and auditing arrangements including adequacy and suitability of project FM staff.
• Review annual audited financial statements, audit reports, and audit management letters and prepare appropriate letters for communication with the project implementing agencies.
• Update the Bank’s automated PRIMA system on a timely basis.
• Provide inputs into diagnostic work in Public Financial Management (PFM), Systematic Country Diagnostics (SCD), and Country Partnership Frameworks (CPF).
• Assess audit firms/ auditors in terms of independence, competence, compliance with International Audit Standards, adequacy of working papers etc.
• Provide training, guidance, and advice on FM related aspects to the staff of project implementing agencies and Bank Task Teams.
• Monitor on-going compliance by projects with the Bank’s FM policies and procedures.
• Monitor borrower's compliance with financial covenants including audit.
• Conduct internal control reviews and Statement of Expenditures (SOE) reviews, in conjunction with disbursement and procurement staff, to determine eligibility of expenditures for Bank financing.
• Review periodic Interim Financial Reports (IFR).

Selection Criteria

• The World Bank Group is looking for TWO Financial Management Specialists (FMS) for the Nigeria
• Familiarity with public sector financial management would be a distinct advantage.
• Fluency in both written and spoken English language is necessary.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently, sometimes at a short notice.
• Country Office, who are qualified professional accountant (CPA, CA, CMA, CIPFA, Certified Internal Auditor, or equivalent membership of an internationally recognized professional accounting institute) with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Business, Finance, Economics or related subject and, at least, 5 (five) years of post-professional-qualification experience in auditing or financial management.

Technical and other Skills:

• Knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Standards on Auditing (ISA). Knowledge of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) would be an added advantage.
• Experience in evaluating/interpreting financial statements and in determining appropriate remedial actions.
• Experience in evaluating audit reports / management letters, following up on issues resulting from the audits.
• Demonstrated experience in fragile and conflict affected contexts (essential);
• Understands the budget formulation and execution processes, including treasury and cash management, as applicable to Bank-financed investment projects and public sector finance in general.
• Strong analytical capabilities and planning, organization, and time management skills.
• Capacity to function effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team, ability to search for common ground to resolve problems.
• Ability to communicate effectively, in writing and orally in French with good working understanding of English.
• Experience in designing and assessing internal control systems using internationally accepted control frameworks such as COSO.
• Experience in evaluating financial management systems (including budgeting, accounting, cash management, internal audit, financial reporting systems).
• Experience in assessing auditor competence and independence.
• Experience in the design and implementation of computerized financial management systems.

Behavioral Competencies:

• Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis an knowledge.
• Knowledge Learning and Communication - Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.
• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Serves as a trusted advisor to others on their decisions, ensuring alignment across units and optimal impact on the organization as a whole.
• Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
• Teamwork and Inclusion - Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.

  How to Apply Interested and qualified candidates should: Click here to apply Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year term appointment.

Application Deadline  15th November, 2017.