International PFM Expert – ASI Palestine

Adam Smith International’s MENA team is seeking to recruit an international Public Financial Management (PFM) expert to support current programmes working within the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) on security sector reform. It is an exciting role which would be expected to coordinate closely with UK and other donor programming supporting PFM reform in Palestine, as well as others working on the Palestinian Security Sector Capability Accountability Sustainability and Inclusivity Programme (CASIP) programme, which is the UK funded programme supporting cross-security sector capacity development and reform.

In close coordination with the Team Leader, the Deputy Head of Programme, the local experts on PFM and the local coordinator, the international experts on PFM are responsible for supporting the implementation of the PFM thematic area activities, based on the approved project documents, potentially including but not limited to:

1. Put in place a PFM Senior Support Team and an Implementation Team to support institutional change within Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) agencies;

2. Build the capacity of the PFM Implementation Team members by providing them with the necessary knowledge and understanding of the content and processes related to carrying out the functional review;

3. Support the functional review of the PASF agencies/Central Financial Administration (CFA) and make recommendations on their organisational structure, roles and responsibilities;

4. Draft a methodology and a workplan for the functional review process in consultation with the Senior Support Team;

5. Collect and review legal documents on the financial organisation of the PASF agencies/CFA;

6. Gather information from PASF agencies through questionnaires;

7. Carry out interviews with finance managers at all PASF agencies and other relevant institutions to define their actual roles and responsibilities;

8. Prepare recommendations on a functional change and change management plan to improve their effectiveness.

9. Hold workshops with PASF agencies/CFA to discuss proposed organisational structures and validate recommendations together with change management plan;

10. Accompany the process of implementing the recommendations through coaching of relevant decision makers and staff;

11. Review the organisation, process and structure of PASF agencies/CFA for budget preparation and for cash management;

12. Develop working tools on budget preparation and cash management in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Planning;

13. Organize a series of trainings and coaching sessions for the staff members of the CFA and the financial units at the PASF agencies on budget preparation and cash management;

14. Assess existing systems of financial controls over expenditures in PASF agencies;

15. Develop guidelines on international control based on best practice;

16. Train staff members of the CFA and the financial units at the PASF agencies on the above-mentioned guidelines;

17. Identify, map and document operational procedures (main focus on accounting and evaluation system) in PASF agencies to detect bottlenecks, reduce the time frame of the financial information processing and computerise the processes when possible;

18. Develop guidelines on existing operational procedures (main focus on accounting and evaluation system) based on best international practices;

19. Provide capacity building trainings on the above-mentioned guidelines to the internal oversight units at PASF agencies and the PFM Team.

    Required

20. Significant experience in leading PFM components on technical assistance programmes, particularly with experience in capacity development in budget preparation and cash management

21. Experience in carrying out scoping/design of PFM interventions.

22. Client-focused attitude

23. Fluent spoken and written English

Highly desirable

• Experience with flexible or adaptive management approaches to institutional development

• Experience working security sector or defence budgeting

• Arabic language skills

• Experience in Palestine

• Experience in MENA

• Experience working on UK funded programmes

How to apply:

Interested candidates should submit an up-to-date CV and brief motivation statement to recruitment.asi@adamsmithinternational.com by March 31, 2020 with the subject line “**International PFM Expert** ”.