Finance and Administrative Support

Background

Strengthening access to justice, rule of law and promoting human rights are cornerstones of UNDP’s work to achieve sustainable human development. The UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji is implementing projects as part of an overall programme in these areas including the Fiji Access to Justice Project and the Rights, Empowerment and Cohesion for rural and urban Fijians Project.   The Fiji Access to Justice Project supports access to justice for impoverished and vulnerable groups through empowering people to access legal rights and services through the relevant key justice institutions, in conjunction with strengthening those key justice institutions to undertake improved service delivery.  The Rights, Empowerment and Cohesion for rural and urban Fijians Project promotes peace building, social cohesion and inclusiveness through awareness of rights, access to services and institutional capacity building in Fiji.

The position of Administration and Finance Associate will work under the Rights Empowerment and Social Cohesion (REACH) Platform for Fiji and Tonga Islands project with the Effective Governance and will be based in the UNDP Pacific Office in Suva, Fiji.   The incumbent will work directly under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Project Finance/Admin Associate directly supports the effective implementation and management of the Projects

As part of the Effective Governance Team; and under the overall guidance of the Programme Manager, Access to Justice, Rule of Law and Human Rights; the Admin and Finance Associate will ensure the smooth implementation of all outreach (awareness raising and service delivery) activities, planning workshops, recruitment of potential consultant, procurement of goods and services for the project.   

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

• Administration and implementation of procurement and financial services for the REACH project
• Provide support and assistance to the REACH team in the management of Project initiatives/ activities.
• Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing
• Enhanced learning and professional development.
• Other functions, as required.

 

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

Administration and implementation of operational and financial services for the REACH project

• Assist the REACH team with planning, formulating, tracking of the project budget;

• Ensure full compliance of the project with UNDP rules and regulations on financial processes, financial records, reports and audit as well as effective and the internal controls frameworks;
• Track project delivery through ATLAS and other tools;
• Maintain an Activity-based expenditure table to monitor expenditure on a real-time basis; ensure that the expenditures are in line with the approved Annual Work Plan;
• Carry out an analysis, as needed, on the expenditure projection based on the deviation of the actual expenditures from the AWP and keep the members of the REACH Team, Government and UNDP informed of the risk of under-delivery;
• Provide the information/reports on the financial/accounting situation of the project and propose solutions to improve the situation;

• Oversee that the financial/accounting data is accurate in Atlas and take timely corrective actions on erroneous data;

• Accuracy verification of Combined Delivery Reports;
• Provision of necessary financial reports and analyses for donor reporting;

• Verification and reconciliation of various expenditures reports from the Responsible Party(ies);

• Preparing payment requests and processes vouchers in Atlas as per activities.

 

Provide administrative support for the REACH Team

• Maintain REACH Project documentation in electronic and/or hard copy format (including financial records such as supporting documents for vouchers and POs), according to UNDP policies and guidelines;
• Maintains and regularly updates project counterpart contacts database;
• Review and compile necessary documentations during procurement process, in support of the Procurement Associate;
• Review and verifies invoices and common services expenses charged to the PMU budget (rent, utilities, phone, miscellaneous);
• Organize project-related meetings in Suva for key partners;
• Provide communication support (electronic and hard copy correspondence, etc) to all REACH Team.
• Procurement administration
• Asset management
• HR administration

 

Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing

• Advice to Project staff on UNDP administrative and reporting, in particular, on budgetary issues.
• Organize trainings for the project partners on financial management.
• Synthesize lessons learned and best practices in programme and project finance.
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

 

Institutional Arrangement

• The successful candidate will work directly under the Project Outreach Coordinator and Deputy Programme Manager – Supporting Integrated Government Service Delivery (REACH) COVID 19 prevention and response in Fiji and Tonga.
• The candidate will be required to provide monthly progressive reports of work undertaken as according to the approved work allocation by the direct supervisor.
• The institutions that will require the candidate to work closely with are: Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation in Fiji and Department of Women, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tonga.

 

Duration of the Work

• The successful candidate will be required to work 8.5 hours per day and on the firth day the candidate can leave early at 2pm.
• The envisaged duration for the consultancy is 240 days between March 2021 to 31 March 2022

 

Duty Station

• Suva, Fiji
• The successful candidate is required to report regularly or be present in office during the work period, including frequency of reporting, even if intermittent.

Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Comprehensiveness knowledge of UNDP processes and procedures in finance and procurement of goods and services
• Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications:

• Minimum requirement of Diploma in Accounting/ Finance, Business Studies, Public Administration and Management, and related fields.  
• Experience
• Minimum of seven (7) working years in th
•  
• Experience
• Minimum of seven (7) working years
• e field of practice office administration and finance and if relevant specific work experience with UNDP/UNFPA/UN Women/UN agencies based in Fiji will add value.

Language requirements

• Fluency of English language is required;
• Knowledge of iTaukei or Fijian Hindi will add value

 

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on:

Daily Fee. Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources

 

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

 

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

 

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria 1 Relevance of Education/Experience background of office and project operation – Max 10 points
• Criteria 2 Knowledge and skills of past or current working experience in the UN agencies or CROP agencies based in Fiji Max 15 Points
• Criteria 3 Relevance of experience in area of specialization in the areas of: Finance and Public Administration, business studies, Accounting and Management, Finance or Office Management – Max 20 points
• Criteria 4 Relevance of experience in key areas project team management of administration and finance or general office operations of administration and finance – Max 20 points
• Criteria 5 Relevance in knowledge sharing and digital innovative approaches to project implementation. – Max 5 Points

 

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• Personal CV, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II in Fijian Dollar (FJD).

 

 

Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity. The successful individual may sign an Individual Contract with UNDP or request his/her employer to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) on their behalf by indicating this in the Offerors letter to Confirming Interest and Availability using Annex II.

 

Annexes

• Annex I - Individual IC General Terms and Conditions
• Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

 

Proposal Submission

• All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy (Finance and Administrative Support) with reference (PN/FJI/013/21) and submitted via UN Job shop by 11 March 2021.
• Note: UNDP Jobs only supports single document upload hence ensure that the proposal is consolidated and submitted as one single document.
• For further information concerning this Terms of Reference, please contact UNDP Pacific Office by email: procurement.fj@undp.org

 

 

Women applicants are encouraged to apply