JULES ROGER KETCHA NZOUNDJI

Area of Expertise:

• Administration, Management, Finance/Accounting, Procurement

Professional Experience:

From March 2017 to Date – Senior Risk Management and Control Officer, African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), HARARE

Headquartered in Harare, ACBF is the African Union’s Specialized Agency for Capacity Development. Having spearheaded and robustly coordinated capacity development programs worth some 700 million US dollars across 48 countries and 8 regional economic communities (RECs) in Africa since 1991, ACBF has gathered the requisite experience that makes it the go-to institution for expert knowledge and human resources to facilitate the timely implementation of continental and national development agendas.
Main responsibilities:
At the Secretariat of ACBF
•Lead the Foundation’s Annual Operating Unit Risk Assessment and Certification process using the Committee of Sponsoring Organisations (COSO) internal control framework and control self-assessment from 2018 to 2020;
•Contributed to the preparation of the internal control status report and the annual certification statement for the Executive Board in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020;
•Update internal control documentation, Management Evaluation Program, Walkthrough and Test controls required to meet the annual attestation;
•Updated the Foundation’s risk Appetite statement which was approved by the Executive Board in May 2018.
•Initiated and monitored the alignment of the Foundation’s risk Management Framework to the revised risk appetite statement and the design of a risk management plan that holistically includes the corporate risks while paying due attention to all departmental risks;
•Follow-up to ensure that statements of representation confirming the existence of effective internal controls are completed by various organizational units on time to support the annual assertion;
•Facilitate Control Self-Assessment (CSA) workshops: documentation of key internal control issues identified by the participants and leader of the discussion and identification of possible actions to strengthen their controls;
•Reported quarterly to management and semi-annually to the Audit and Risk Committee of the Executive board on the periodic review of control effectiveness by organizational units throughout the Foundation and monitored the completion of their internal control enhancement plans
•Contribute to the preparation of the internal control status report and the annual certification statement for the Executive Board;

At country grants level
•Assess the fiduciary capacity during appraisal and assess whether the proposed recipient has the minimum required systems, management arrangements and implementation capacities to assume responsibility for the project; 20 recipients assessed.
•Ensure effectiveness conditions are met before disbursement and trigger remedial action in case of failure of compliance with the Grant Agreement provisions; 40 projects reviewed between 2017 and 2020.
•Identified critical functional gaps that needed to be addressed in the short and/or long term to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the project implementation and conducted project implementation support mission in Mauritania, Gabon; Uganda and several other countries;
•Developed the Foundation’s annual audit inventory of all grant recipients to ensure that all required audits are performed.
Key Achievements:
•Followed-up to ensure that statements of representation confirming the existence of effective internal controls are completed by various organizational units on time to support the annual assertion;
•Facilitated a risk Management and compliance training workshop for Management and Professional Staff
•Assessed the fiduciary capacity during appraisal and assess whether 20 proposed recipients had the minimum required systems, management arrangements and implementation capacities to assume responsibility for the project;
•Ensured effectiveness conditions are met before disbursement and trigger remedial action in case of failure of compliance.