Finance and Admin Associate

Background

This position is National Personnel Service Agreement NPSA6 (NB3).

The Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) (originally known as the Tumen River Area Development Programme –TRADP), is an intergovernmental cooperation mechanism in Northeast Asia, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with a membership of four countries: People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Russian Federation.

In 1995, member governments signed formal agreements to establish the intergovernmental cooperation mechanism, aimed at strengthening economic and technical cooperation, and attaining greater growth and sustainable development for the peoples and countries in Northeast Asia and the Tumen River area in particular.

Since its creation, the GTI has remained a unique intergovernmental platform for economic cooperation, fostering peace, stability and sustainable development in Northeast Asia. It is playing a significant role in expanding policy dialogue and strengthening a business-friendly environment in the region, therefore contributing to the improvement of living standards through the development of infrastructure and the promotion of trade and investment.

In 2005, the member countries agreed to assume the full ownership, and focus on the promotion of regional cooperation in the key sectors of economy: energy, transport, tourism, trade & investment, environment and agriculture.

In recent years, GTI member countries recognized the importance to expand cooperation in wider areas, and agreed to establish the new mechanisms under the GTI framework. In this connection, the Northeast Asia Local Cooperation Committee, NEA EXIM Bank Association, GTI Research Institutions Network, and NEA Business Association were established.

Currently, GTI is in the process of legal transition to an independent international organization. The discussion on legal texts is undergoing.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and supervision of the Director of GTI Secretariat, the incumbent will take the lead to manage the administration of the GTI Secretariat to ensure the efficient and effective operations of the office.

Specifically, the incumbent will perform the following responsibilities and tasks:

I. Management improvement

Make proposals on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations of the Secretariat.
Envisage further prospective for the GTI, and provide strategic suggestions on refining the organizational development.

II. Finance/Budget

Prepare and estimate the GTI Secretariat’s annual operational budget; Monitor and report on the status of the budget by preparing the financial analysis and the detailed expenditures report;
Manage the GTI Common Fund to ensure the contributions from member countries arrive in time and the expenditures are appropriately accounted for in line with the approved budget;
Manage the UNDP/ROK Trust Fund to ensure the donor’s money is well accounted for and the designed projects under the Trust Fund are implemented according to the agreed TOR and UNDP’s policies.
Estimate the budget of GTI projects and activities, monitor the financial status and produce the final expenditures reports;
Coordinate with suppliers and UNDP Finance Unit to arrange the payment in the timely manner;
Initiate the Atlas transactions by inputting the data pertaining to the travel authorization, consultants’ payments and budget revision.
Manage the petty cash of the GTI Secretariat.
Respond to financial inquiries from member countries, donors, and auditors.

III. Administration

Be responsible for budget estimation, expenditures settlements and meeting documents preparations for the inter-governmental meetings and large scale events (e.g. GTI Consultative Commission Meeting, GTI National Coordinators Meeting, economic forum, etc), and manage relevant logistic arrangement;
Review procurement requests to ensure compliance and fund availability;
Conduct the bidding process to identify qualified suppliers, and follow up to contractors once contracts have been awarded;
Develop internal documents for GTI Secretariat including operational guidelines, procedures, protocols, rules as well as different standards, forms and templates pertaining to human resource management, financial management, workflow, planning and reporting, event preparation and organization, daily routine etc.
Manage the office premises (e.g. liaise with the housing service on contract and maintenance of the premises).
Ensure that UNDP’s rules and procedures regarding administrative management are strictly followed.

IV. HR

Initiate and manage the whole process of personnel recruitment, including drafting TOR, long-listing and short-listing, written test, and interview. Negotiations the contract terms.
Provide guiding and training to new staff and interns;
Prepare the TOR and select interns, and assign the responsibilities, supervise;
Handle leave records of the Secretariat staff, prepare monthly attendance record.

V. Legal Transition

Coordinate with member countries and UNDP with the assistance of Legal Advisor to facilitate the GTI’s legal transition into an independent international institution;
Assist in further drafting of internal documents, based on existing as well as developed draft documents, for the purposes of their usage as documents necessary in the legal transition.

VI. Other Responsibilities

Support in the management of GTI soft projects, and sectoral meeting organization, including energy and environment sectors.
Perform other tasks as required by the supervisor.

Competencies

The incumbent is required to possess the following qualifications and competencies:

Knowledge of governments operations, particularly with that of GTI member countries would be an asset.
Familiarity with UN rules and policies and its financial management system would be preferred.
Effective team player with excellent inter-personal skills.
International background with exposure to multicultural environment.
Excellent communication and drafting skills, both in Chinese and English.
Highly self-motivated.
Excellent computer skills with MS Office (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Project).

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Academic Education

A Bachelor degree in accounting, finance and/or business related fields; strong academic knowledge of accounting and auditing will be valued.

Min. years of relevant Work experience

At least 3 years of programme support, administrative and financial working experience preferably with international organizations, in the field of finance and/or administrative management.