Protection International
Consultancy: Consultancy firms to support the Finance and Admin (F&A) Unit
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Duration: 6 months
Starting date: ASAP
Direct Report: GT Accountant
Technical References: Directora Administrativa Regional MESO America/Guatemala;
Contable in Mesoamerica and Oficial de Finanzas in Colombia, Bogota; and the Head of the
Programme Unit
About Protection International (PI) s
Protection International is an International NGO that contributes to the improvement of the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) throughout the world. PI provides tools to develop HRDs’ capacities to manage their own security as their struggle against impunity and work in favour of human rights and democracy in their respective countries or regions. PI seeks to contribute to a situation where HRDs are recognised as legitimate actors for social change and to an environment where they can exercise their right to defend universally accepted human rights.
Protection International has its global office in Brussels, but primarily works where protection of HRDs is needed. PI has long-term presence in several countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Under its Global Strategy 2019-2023, PI is gradually transforming into a network of Hubs, establishing regional offices that work in a flexible manner across several countries.
Rationale
PI is seeking external consultancy firms to support the Finance and Administration (F&A) Unit, in particular the finance team, to follow up on financial transactions, in preparing project reports and in providing financial analysis to the F&A Unit for submission to the Executive Director and to the Management Team.
For this purpose, PI is open to accountancy consultants/accountancy consultancy firms and/or financial management firms/consultants based in Belgium to apply.
Scope and Objective
The objective of the assignment is to assist PI to ensure full support in accounting and reporting related to the Latin American region covering four (4) different projects.
Where needed in the coming period between tasks for the Latin American region, the assignment will be tapped into to assist the F&A Unit in areas of work where collection, verification, financial reporting, and accounting is needed.
Approach
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Collection and verification
- In coordination with PI finance officers in the MESO America regional hub and in the Co- lombia office, collect expenditure supporting documents;
- Verify, match and reconcile bank payments with the regional hub and the country office reports;
- Organise, encode, store, and archive data in particular:
- Ensure the financial reports are correspondence to the analytics accountancy in PI ac- counting system (Wings);
- Encode the related financial transactions on PI accounting system (Wings); and
- Store and archiving the related reports, documents and data in PI digital platform (NextCloud).
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Financial reporting on grants and audit preparation:
- As a matter of priority, prepare timely financial reports according to the European Com- mission’s financial reporting and audit guidelines;
- Prepare timely financial project reports to donors according to their requirements;
- Prepare financial reports for project audits in Q1/2023; and
- Ensure organized and stored input for the overall PI institutional audit in 2023.
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Budget analysis and other related tasks arising in this assignment:
- Perform budget deviation analysis and budget update;
- Support the Finance team with any issue related to the concerned projects; and
- Provide analysis and advice on the challenges, gaps, and potential areas for improvement in financial management and financial control.
Deliverables and ways of working
- Accurate financial reports, according to the EU guidelines and donors requirements;
- Provide the auditor with accurate financial report with its supporting documents for the project auditing;
- Accurate financial records and archiving;
- Provide weekly work progress reports to the Line Manager, to the Executive Director and the Management Team;
- Flag and raise in a timely manner, key issues on financial management and financial control to the Line Manager and to the Executive Director; and
- Weekly meeting with the line manager GT Accountant and when appropriate with the whole Finance team, and the Head of the Programme Unit.
Requirements
Experience
- Minimum 10 years of Experience in accounting.
- Proven experience working with international not-for-profit/non-government organizations (NGOs) with medium range income/budgets based in Belgium.
- Experience and understanding of Aisbl related laws, in particular on reporting obligations.
- Managed and prepared multiple financial reports and budgeting with various core grants and project grants.
- Consolidated information from various multi-layered/level core grants and project grants and delivered a global financial report.
- Knowledge of and application of EU financial guidelines and audit rules.
Knowledge & Skills
- Expertise in accounting systems.
- Experience and knowledge of the use of the Wings accounting system.
- Highly organized and efficient handling of clientele data and information, including respect for GDPR.
- Time management including and respect for clientele’s required services in time sensitive situations.
- Advanced skills in computer productivity applications (Word, Excel).
- Demonstrated capacity to orally communicate clearly and effectively to a wide range of expert and non-expert audiences.
Languages
- Fluently spoken and written Spanish & English is essential
- Good command of French
Other requirements
- The firm/consultant should be legally based and operating in Belgium
Location and Timetable
Based in Brussels (Belgium) for a duration of six (6) months.
What we offer
Payment of services based on signed agreement
How to apply
Application process
If you meet the above requirements and are interested in applying for this consultancy, please:
- Send your narrative and budget proposal, and relevant CV(s) of experts (without picture) to [email protected], mentioning ‘’Consultancy for F&A Unit” in the subject line.
- Include your name in the file name of your application documents, e.g. Accountant Consultancy Belgium_CV.doc.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the procurement process will remain open until a qualified firm is selected. We thank all consultants and firms for their interest. Please note that we and we will aim to send feedback as much as we can, however, with the high volume of responses and our internal capacities, we may only be able to contact short-listed firms.
Protection International is an equal opportunity employer. The organization shall not discriminate and will proactively apply affirmative action principles against discrimination in advertisements for employment, recruitment and other conditions of employment, preventing discrimination against any job applicant or employee on the basis of race, colour, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, differently abled, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
Adhering to Protection International means to comply with our Code of Conduct & Ethics, Anti- Corruption Policy, Security Policy, Conflict of Interest Policy, Policy for Protection from Harassment, Abuse, Exploitation & Discrimination.
PI promotes gender equality, diversity and inclusion.
Further information about Protection International is available on