Professional Experience:
Twelve years with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) as a Regional Finance and Administration Manager for Southern Africa since November 2011 to date managing finances for 5 countries (Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. I lead a finance & administration team of six CAFOD staff members and finance personnel at partner organisations – mainly Caritas offices. Strategic decisions were made to exit from Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi due to funding gaps. I ensured compliance with CAFOD standards and local country laws.
• I developed financial strategies to ensure clear cost-effective measures observing value for money.
• I coordinate the preparation & finalisation of monthly accounts before the head office deadlines. This involves balance sheet and Income & Expenditure management with reconciliations and schedules being prepared for management.
• Cashflow Management – Optimising cash requirements in-country and ensuring availability when required managing country specific risks.
• Donor Funds Management & Reporting - I have experienced managing CAFOD funding and institutional donor funds including the European Union, DFID (FCDO) , ECHO, Caritas Australia, Caritas International, Misereor UNICEF and FAO. I monitor programme finances by source of funds, and I ensure donor reporting is done timely and in compliance with donor standards & guidelines. I oversee the financial management support to partner organisations that work with CAFOD. This includes partner capacity assessments before we start working with them, preparing capacity strengthening plans and continuous development of the partner’s finance and administration teams together with management. CAFOD also emphasises checking partner procurement procedures & their governance. Quarterly support visits are conducted, and compliance audits are done annually to ensure partner compliance with CAFOD & donor guidelines. Any deviations and ineligible costs are disallowed from the reports. On a monthly basis I review payroll for completeness, accuracy and non-existence of ghost employees. I ensure statutory deductions are made and remitted to the authorities within the required time limits. I plan & lead in audits for country offices and specific donor programmes which will be due for such audits. These can either be internal or external. After the audit, I maintain a follow up checklist to ensure high risk issues are attended to in the prescribed times as recommended by auditors. Follow ups issues are coordinated with finance personnel and partners. I lead in the preparation of annual budgets and consolidation thereof. I monitor the budget utilisation on a monthly basis through variance analyses and I share these with the Country Representative and Programme Managers for their considerations. I have oversight of the asset registers for CAFOD and for the partners we work with. I ensure asset verifications are done at least once per annum. These verifications are also arranged in the event of changes in custodianship of assets During partner support visits, assets are also physically verified to ensure they exist. Monthly bank reconciliations and cash counts are verified for both CAFOD & partners & debtors accounts are reviewed for clearing. For each donor funding, grant reconciliations are done to ensure funds received net of expenses incurred match with net asset balances.
I design financial, administrative & human resources policies and procedures for each country in line with each country’s local laws. In the process I liaise with legal advisors in each country on any specific legal matters to ensure compliance with the country financial statutory requirements including tax submissions & returns, human resources including safe recruitment, performance management and employee relations.