Compliance Coordinator

The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, provides relief, rehabilitation, and post-conflict reconstruction support to victims of natural disaster, oppression, and violent conflict in over 40 countries. The IRC is committed to bold leadership, innovation, and creative partnerships. Active in public health, education, livelihoods, women’s empowerment, youth development, and protection and promotion of rights, IRC assists people from harm to home.

IRC entered Nigeria in October 2012 in response to a widespread flood disaster. Since then, the IRC has expanded its scope and size of the programs in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States. The IRC’s response to the humanitarian situation includes integrated health and nutrition services, reproductive health care and women protection services, Environmental Health, Child Protection, Economic Recovery and Development, Education, General Protection, and community-based disaster preparedness. The country program will develop a new strategic plan in the first half of 2021. IRC’s programming in Northeast Nigeria is supported by a team of more than 700 staff. Together, we aim to provide the best possible impact for some of the most vulnerable children, women, and men. In all that we do, IRC strives to deliver through IRC’s core values of Integrity, Accountability, Service and Equality. This new role is at the heart of that challenge.

Job Overview

The Compliance Coordinator will support the Country Director and senior staff to oversee ethics and compliance related functions across the country program. The core purpose of the role is:

To build a safe and compliant working environment within IRC, through proactive prevention initiatives to reduce wrongdoing and timely, coordinated action where behavior is suspected to be inconsistent with IRC values and policies.

The role will have a range of responsibilities, all aimed to promote a culture of integrity, ethics and compliance in the behavior of staff and incentive workers and to coordinate consistent and effective follow up as needed when there are allegations of misconduct. The Compliance Coordinator is responsible for providing guidance, facilitating, and supporting the compliance of International Rescue Committee (IRC) Nigeria country program and the implementing partners to local laws, IRC policies and procedures and donor guidelines, regulations, and contractual commitments.

Staff Working Closely with: Members of the CO SMT, Head of Units (especially, the Snr. Grants Coordinator and the Deputy Director, Finance), Budget Holders, International Rescue Committee (IRC) Member staff, as well as Ethics and Compliance Unit.

Major Responsibilities

Prevention: Create a safe and compliant environment

• In coordination with and under the guidance and direction of the Country Director and the Global Ethics and Compliance Unit, act as focal point for the local integration of IRC Organizational Policies and co-ordinate a training and awareness programme for staff on ethics and compliance issues.

• Ensure compliance to applicable Nigerian laws and donor guidelines and regulations governing grants.

• Participate in grant start up and closure meetings for grants.

• Conduct compliance reviews as appropriate, prepare reports for the SMT and ensure that recommendations are implemented.”.

• Follow up with Unit heads/BHs in ensuring timely response to compliance audit requirements and recommendation.

• Partnership management – oversee the transparent selection process of the partners, the reviews and evaluation the processes. Review the partners agreements or contract and ensuring compliance to IRC policies and procedures.

• Provide on need basis, capacity building and trainings to partners or sub recipients on compliance.

• Actively monitor the status of mitigation measures to be implemented by the Country Program related to its Enterprise Risk Management Risk Report Card.

• Using a range of innovative strategies to promote a culture of ethical and compliant behaviours across all sites.

• Support records management and archiving processes to assist with the proper filing of documentation

• Maintain an audit finding tracker to centralize findings and monitor implementation of corrective actions and identify trends for areas to strengthen

• Promote a culture of reporting on ethics and compliance concerns, providing appropriate feedback to staff, partners, and complainants, working closely to ensure support and follow up is provided.

• Work with Safeguarding focal point(s), HR, and local staff to ensure implementation of IRC’s global safeguarding strategy.

Misconduct Allegations and Investigations

• The Compliance Coordinator works with IRC’s global Ethics and Compliance Unit and Country leadership, to ensure that staff and partners are aware of the IRC’s reporting mechanisms.

• Provide timely support to the ECU on investigations as appropriate, in accordance with the IRC’s investigations process.

• Contribute to investigations on a case-by-case basis under the guidance of ECU (Sr Director of Investigations). This may include the below:

o By agreement and in conjunction with ECU, support or undertake investigations of breaches of IRC Way including alleged fraud, waste, financial corruption, and safeguarding misconduct while ensuring objectivity, impartiality, and fairness throughout the investigative processes in accordance with generally recognized international investigative standards, and IRC Investigation Guidelines.

o Prepare investigation reports (in English) and ad hoc briefs pertaining to investigations in coordination with ECU.

o Liaise with ECU to ensure identification of impacted donors on allegations of misconduct.

o Undertake investigation assignments in the local area at the direction, and in coordination, with ECU, keeping country and regional management informed, when appropriate, consistent with any investigation confidentiality constraints.

Other

• Conduct any ad-hoc internal investigative/ crisis related assignments as requested by the Country Director and in coordination with ECU or HR or in response to donor specific queries.

• Work in collaboration with and support MEAL Coordinator on client’s responsiveness.

• Assess risks and manage the resolution of clients’ feedbacks and complaints in confidential manner, within given timescales. Escalate issues from local client responsiveness mechanisms to CD/ECU when appropriate. Ensure local accountability staff are trained in what to escalate and how to do so.

• Perform other tasks as requested by the CD as required.

Job Requirements

Essential

• Qualified internal auditor or compliance management experience (Graduate of finance, accounting, or a related business field with professional qualification-ACA, ACCA, CPA or CIA)

• Minimum of 10 year working experience with 5 years+ related work experience with a not-for-profit organization.

• Proven experience in investigation planning/execution/documentation and risk-based auditing.

• Be highly accurate, detail-orientated, and able to complete multiple projects, with conflicting priorities, on a timely basis.

• Excellent English report writing skills

• Proven interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and relationship building.

• Willingness to undertake high amount of travel within the NIGERIA IRC field locations (40%) and work with minimum supervision under difficult conditions in some of the most underdeveloped, insecure, and remote parts of NIGERIA.

• Strong cultural awareness and be able to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

• Demonstrate standards of ethics and integrity.

• Commitment to International rescue Committee values

Desirable

• INGO experience or have worked in a commercial/public sector international organization.

• Familiarity with grant requirements of major donors such as USAID (BHA), EC/ECHO, FCDO, and the UN

• Good financial analysis aptitude

• Experience of ERP financial software’s

• Experience of audit

• Counter fraud experience

• Ability to look at the bigger picture when assessing organizational performance and risk.

Standards of Professional Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances