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Certified Professional Accountant (CPA-CGA, FCCA) with successful global accounting and audit experience in all aspects of accountancy, financial reporting, budgeting and financial analysis with more than 15 years experience in international development, currently Project Finance Controller at Agriteam Canada Consulting Ltd, in Calgary, Alberta, seeks challenging opportunities. |
 Contact Yohannes Feyissa
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Area of Expertise: |
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Administration, Management, Finance/Accounting, Procurement
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Professional Experience: |
Yohannes Feyissa is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in Alberta and is currently the Canada-based Project Finance Controller on several international development projects in Africa and Asia, funded by various donors including GAC (Global Affair Canada), World Bank, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN). He possesses a wide range of accounting skills including budgeting and cash projection, reconciliation, audit, and full-cycle accounting. In his role as Project Finance Controller, Yohannes has the responsibility of oversight and coordination of all financial aspects of the projects, including procurement, budgeting and forecasting, reconciliations of multi-currency field accounts, and facilitating financial audits.
As part of the budget preparation process, Mr. Feyissa coordinates with project team leaders and management to ensure that adequate costing for technical support is included in the budget at an appropriate cost. In an auditing capacity, he reviews all invoices and expense reports from Technical Experts prior to authorizing payment. He ensures that their time charged does not exceed contracted and approved amounts, that all deliverables were performed and approved by the appropriate project team member, and performs a financial audit of the accuracy and eligibility of all costs charged.
As Project Finance Controller, Mr. Feyissa oversees all financial aspects of the projects. He reconciles advances to field offices and prepares reconciliations from local currencies, prepares and submits invoices to clients, audits all project financial documents such as expense reports and field accounts, updates and maintains the project budget, performs variance analyses, and prepares ad hoc financial reports as requested. He also manages cash flows of the project and its field offices, ensuring adequate funds available for operations. He performs overall administration of project accounting, procurement and financial systems, including conducting monthly internal audits. In completing his monthly internal audits, Mr. Feyissa uncovered a claim from false conference organizer in West Africa, saving the project a significant amount of money.
In coordination with other project team members, Mr. Feyissa developed a comprehensive financial management manual as a reference and training guide for project local staff. He provides training and follow-up support of the field-based financial and accounting staff, and real-time, ongoing feedback to ensure continued adherence to established best practices and policies in financial management.
Mr. Feyissa assists with all aspects of procurement activities on his projects. This includes assisting with needs assessments, planning and budgeting procurement of goods and services, reviewing approval, pro-formas, quotes and other bidding documents, and reviewing purchase documents to ensure adherence to internal controls and procedures, and compliance with Agriteam’s established financial management procedures and requirements. Mr. Feyissa is personally responsible for uncovering a procurement fraud on one of his projects which involved a supplier overcharging the project for rental vehicle costs. Through his diligence, the project was able to successfully recover the misspent funds.
The EKN mandates external audits on an annual basis for their project. To this end, Mr. Feyissa liaises with the auditors, pulls and organizes all sampled documents, and works closely with the auditors and responds in real time to all queries addressed. In the two annual audits which have so far taken place, a total of €1.782 million has been sampled and no reversals or issues were revealed.
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Education: |
A gradguate of Accounting and Finance and Fellow Member of Chartered Certified Accountants of London, UK and a member of Certified Professional Accountants of Canada (CAP-CGA).
Canadian Accounting Fundamentals: Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Calgary, AB
Attended workshops and seminars in Fraud Investigation by Pricewaterhouse Coopers: Geneva Switzerland
Attended trainings in International Public Sector Accounting Standards: Turin, Italy.
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Affiliations and Achievements: |
Member: Certified General Accountant (CGA) of Alberta Member: Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA) Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, London, UK
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