Director Administration and Finance (Court of Justice) at Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region. Considered one of the pillars of the African Economic Community, the organization was founded in order to achieve collective self-sufficiency for its member states by creating a single large trading bloc through an economic and trading union. It also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region. The organization operates officially in three co-equal languages French, English, and Portuguese.

We are currently recruiting for the position below:

Job Title: Director Administration and Finance (Court of Justice)

Reference: ECW-CCJ/REC/D/003
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Department: Specialised Institution
Directorate: Administration et Finances
Grade: D1
Supervisor: Bureau of the Court
Duration: Permanent

Job Description

• A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Statutory Appointees or D2 level Officers. Directorates are headed by Directors or Officers holding Director level positions.
• Directors or Director level Officers are responsible for providing the expertise in particular areas for the design and implementation of technical projects in line with ECOWAS objectives.
• Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution's mandate.
• They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies’ broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate. D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff.

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership Tasks
Directors or Director level Officers report directly to Departmental Heads. As the principal link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible for:

• Clearly communicating the Department's vision to staff, explain how the Directorate’s activities aligns with them as well as ways of carrying out set tasks on it;
• Staying on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes;
• Remaining in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.

Managerial Tasks
The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff. He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.

Managerial tasks will include:

• Plan annual goals, objectives, activities and budget tied to the Department’s overall plans; measure and monitor goal achievement; negotiate suitable adjustments to goals and budgets;
• Implement performance-based budgeting within the Directorate;
• Organize the Directorate in an efficient way with clear reporting lines, minimal bureaucracy and optimal delegation of responsibilities and authority;
• Work with the relevant Directorate to ensure efficient and effective services such as recruitment, action on performance decisions, promotions and related matters;
• Set standards of work and create mechanisms to monitor staff output and ensure that standards are maintained and deadlines met without compromising quality of work;
• Manage the system of setting individual performance planning and standards through available Performance Planning and Evaluation systems;
• Provide regular and prompt performance feedback to direct reports;
• Actively engaged in the development of staff to ensure skills are built to match plans, goals and existing structures;
• Create productive working atmosphere within the Directorate to encourages staff participation.
• Use of Personal Expertise
• While the Director will have a reserve of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:
• Direct technical guidance on programme design or implementation in an area where he or she has high-level technical expertise;
• Represent ECOWAS in professional meetings or working groups; make speeches, negotiate agreements, mediate disputes;
• Lead or participate in technical missions to develop projects and programmes;
• Advise on issues relating to his or her area of technical expertise;
• Work with the relevant specialized Parliamentary Committee on regional legislation, as needed.

Technical Tasks
The Position:

• Reporting directly to the Bureau of the Community Court of Justice. The Director of Administration and Finance is responsible for the day to day running of the administrative secretariat of the Court and is the channel of communication between the Departments and the President on administrative matters. He/ She is the accounting officer of the Court and the Head of the Department of Administration and Finance.
• Responsible for the general administration of the Court under the authority of the President.
• Responsible for the day to day running of the administrative secretariat of the Court and shall be the channel of communication between the Departments and the President on administrative matters.
• He/ She shall be responsible for all procedure for recruitment of professional and locally recruited staff in accordance with the relevant ECOWAS Staff Regulations and shall chair the Advisory Committees in charge of recruitment of all categories of staff, except the Committee for the appointments of Directors, P6 and P5 team leader positions.
• Prepares the annual draft budget of the Court, based on the general guidelines provided by the Bureau as well as the work program of the Court.
• He/ She shall be the accounting officer of the Court and shall submit quarterly financial statements to the Bureau through the President.
• Responsible for the generation of accurate, timely and complete financial information each month/quarter as required by the financial regulations; including but not limited to the balance sheet, income statement, budget to actual variance analysis, projected cash flow, key strategy indicators analysis, detailed analysis of Community levy proceeds, other accounts receivable and accounts payable, situation of the treasury, situation of staff provident fund and the situation of the assets and properties of the institution.
• Supervises the production of quarterly financial statements including income and expenditure statements, balance sheet, cash flow projections, analysis of advances and related reports on timely basis.
• Develops mechanism for the management and effective performance of all activities relating to financial accounting and payments of suppliers, payments for contract, monitoring and management of banking relationship.
• Coordinates, controls and implements administrative and financial procedures in accordance with relevant ECOWAS texts.
• Ensures the transparent management of funds from the Community levy, funds from external parties, donors and other funds provided for the Court.
• Plans, supervises, monitors and coordinates the duties and programs assigned to the Administration and Finance Department.
• Oversees the supervision of personnel of the Administration/Finance Department, which includes work allocation, training and problem resolution, and the evaluation of the performance of the staff of the department.
• Performs any other related task as may be assigned by the Bureau.

Qualifications/Experience/Skills
Educational Qualification:

• A minimum of Master's Degree in Finance, Accounting, Management or Administration.

Experience:

• Twelve (12) years professional experience including six (6) years relevant international experience and five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity;
• Possession of higher degree would reduce the required professional experience to ten (10) years with five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
• Experience in a variety of private and public institutions, preferably in a multi-cultural setting and in an international institution would be an advantage.
• Possession of a formal professional Accountancy qualification e.g. CA, ACCA, CIMA etc. would be an advantage.
• Must be fully functional in all aspects of Financial Accounting Software and detailed knowledge of at least one major Accounting Software.

Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Abilities):

• Leadership skills and ability to work in a multi-cultural team;
• Ability to build partnership with other institutions;
• Excellent knowledge of Financial Accounting principles and concepts in order to perform tasks in accordance with the generally accepted Accounting Principles.
• Inter personal skills necessary to train others in performing key Administrative and Financial activities and supervise their work.
• Good communication skills for influencing groups of peers and stakeholders outside the organization (public speaking, writing, persuasiveness, credibility, negotiation, problem-solving).
• Good interpersonal social skills for working with peers and subordinate staff (listening ability, approachability, clear oral expression).
• Able team-player with peers (creates solutions to problems, creates ideas, takes on share of the work, reliable).
• Drive and energy;
• Demonstrates fairness;
• Self-control and stress management methods;
• Good personal organization with ability to prioritize comfortably, adjust to rapidly changing priorities and to manage time well;
• Ability to delegate authority clearly and effectively to staff. In particular, ability to use support staff available to the Directorate.
• Ability to make recommendations to the Bureau in respect of administrative and financial decisions;
• Must be Computer Literate.

Age:

• Candidates should not be over 50 years old at the point of recruitment and must be a citizen of one of the ECOWAS member states;

Language:

• Candidates must be fluent in one of the official languages of the Community: English, French and Portuguese. A working knowledge of another would be an advantage.

Remuneration
USD 60,372 - USD 75,005

Application Closing Date
30th June, 2015.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online