(Offre en anglais) Tfanen project team is looking for a Finance Consultant Retour vers les opportunités

Project Background

The European Union €11m “Programme to Support the Strengthening of Tunisia’s Cultural Sector” (PACT – Programme d’Appui a la Culture en Tunisie) aims to support the redefinition of Tunisian cultural policy and the restructuring of the cultural sector, in the context of Tunisia’s democratic transition.

The second strand of the Programme (known as Tfanen-Tunisie Créative) is implemented through a €10,6m PAGoDA contract implemented by the British Council on behalf of/in partnership with the European National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC). Overall objectives of Tfanen are to stimulate a local collaborative approach to creating a social and cultural ecosystem, inclusive for all groups of society.

Specific objectives are to:

• Promote cultural diversity and access to culture in Tunisia, targeting in particular vulnerable populations
• Support the freedom of expression and creation, increased international exposure and knowledge-sharing

Tfanen comprises a strong capacity building and grant mechanism approach and engages with a wide variety of stakeholders: ministries, decentralised public bodies, cultural professionals and civil society organisations. The project started in June 2016 for an initial duration of 36 months. In 2018 the project was extended for an additional period of 6 months and has just been re-extended until November 2021.

Purpose of the consultancy

As a deputy Finance Manager and a member of the core team delivering the Tfanen project, the Consultant will be responsible for supporting all the administrative and financial management of the project.

In particular, this role will support consistent and effective management of all aspects of project finances, ensuring rigorous financial control and complete, accurate and accessible information in compliance with clear financial, procurement, administrative and audit procedures and requirements.

The Finance Consultant works as part of the wider Tfanen team and may be required to work occasionally in or with other areas as the project evolves and develops.

Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities imply providing support to the Tfanen Finance manager in the following tasks:

• Work with the Finance Manager on Financial and administrative grant management, payment of grants, review and follow up of grantee financial reports
• Participation in grantees’ financial capacity building exercise on financial management, according to Tfanen Guidelines by bringing clarifications to grantees about financial guidelines, identifying grantees’ training needs and coordinate with grant team the organisation of relevant training sessions
• In close collaboration with the grant team, review and validate grantees’ budget amendments requests according to Tfanen grant’s financial guidelines and in line with local regulation
• Update and support electronic filing of documents on the project’s SharePoint site, under the supervision of the Project Manager
• Participate in grantees’ budget proposal evaluations within new calls (concept notes and final proposals)
• Support the team with final financial evaluation, monitoring and closing of allocated grants
• Support grant administrative and financial monitoring and follow up activity, ensure audit requirements are considered in day-to-day Programme delivery and that audit trail is visible, transparent and maintained by all members of the team
• Ensure due diligence administrative and financial checks on potential partner organisations and grants beneficiaries
• Ensure grant projects’ reporting monitoring and tracking by maintaining an electronic database for grantee Financial reporting and tracking
• Coordinate effective and timely grant support to the Grant and the Finance managers for all assigned grant funded projects; provide monthly reports on the progress of grant-funded projects ensuring the accuracy of information
• Risk assessment and mitigation related to grants’ finance and budget management.
• Follow up on monthly financial reports (open POs, late GR, vendor payments, clearing of petty cash, etc) and liaise with BC Tunis BOT team, Administrative Officer , Project Manager and vendors in collecting and submitting financial documents (e.g. invoices, time sheet, vouchers, receipts)
• Ensure all activity is financially compliant (both corporate and according to the EUD contract), cost effective, delivers value for money and meets British Council and client (EUD) requirements.
• Ensure smooth administrative and financial day- to-day management of the office and work in close collaboration with the Administrative Officer in the execution of the project administrative and finance tasks
• Provide support for Programme closure and financial reconciliations
• Participation on the implementation of the project’s audit and the production of the financial part of reports (internal and to EUD), incl. final report and in relation to grants.
• Support the British Council Project Manager and Team Leader on filling monthly control checks (MCC)
• Serves as acting finance team head in the absence of the Finance Manager
• Other duties as assigned

Key Working Relationships

• Tfanen Senior Programme Manager / Team leader, Head of Operations, Head of Research MEL & Communications, Tfanen team
• Creative Europe Desk Operations Coordinator
• Tfanen Learning and Sharing Adviser
• Tfanen grantees
• Tunisian public authorities, at national and local levels, involved in grant projects and/or expected to participate in Tfanen Labs
• Tfanen Project Board Members (British Council, Institut Français, Wallonie Brussels International, Goethe Institut) and other members of the EUNIC Cluster Tunisia
• EU Delegation in Tunisia
• Ministry of Cultural Affairs

Timeline

• The length of the assignment will stretch until November 2020, for up to max. 500 working days in total, with an expected start in May 2019.
• The appointed consultant will be based in the Tfanen office dedicated to the core project team and is expected to deliver through both field missions and office management.

Outputs

• Brief monthly reports on financial grant reports
• Maintain and update a grant risk Matrix
• Follow-up on late GR IR reports

Management

The consultant will be line managed by the Tfanen Head of Finance & Procurement and task managed by Tarek El Kamel, Tfanen Finance Manager. The contractual and administrative aspects of the advisor’s mission will be coordinated by Nadia Naccache, Tfanen Project Manager at the British Council Tunisia.