Provincial Finance and Admin Officer

Background:

Indonesia's Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia's human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia's 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values.

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.

This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program's approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia's development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels and use the well attested-success of INOVASI's local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

The Program is implemented by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Purpose of the Position:

The Finance and Admin Officer will support all aspects related finance and administration at the provincial level. The position will coordinate closely with the Finance Coordinator in the national office for the management of program finances at the provincial level, and with Office and Admin Coordinators in Jakarta for the management of the Admin functions.

Working with children

Is this position likely to come into contact with children Yes No

Duties: Under the direction of the Provincial Manager and in close liaison with the Finance Coordinator and the Office and Admin Coordinator in Jakarta , the Provincial Finance and Admin Officer will:

General Finance:

1. Prepare payment transactions including employee advances, and petty cash voucher. Ensure all transactions are supported with proper, accountable, and completed documents and alignment with INOVASI and DFAT standard.

2. Support the Finance Coordinator in archiving financial documents based on monthly Cashbook report through copying and scanning all document related to each Payment Approval Form (PAF) from Provincial Office.

3. Verify all transactions to ensure they are within approved budgets and advise the Finance Coordinator on any discrepancies.

4. Prepare accurate monthly cash book reports on provincial expenditures and send these together with scanned copies of original receipts and other expenditure-related documentations, such as: bank statement, bank reconciliation, etc.

5. Prepare accurate monthly cash advance aging report, bank receipt voucher (BRV) register and follow up any advance outstanding before it is due as per finance guidelines.

6. Support the Provincial Manager by preparing monthly and quarterly provincial level forecasts and send to Head Office in Jakarta.

7. Prepare monthly expenditure tracking against the forecast, and activities cost.

8. On the basis of internal cash available and planned expenditure, send monthly cash requests for the program and operational to the Head Office in Jakarta.

9. Uphold Palladium's policy of Zero Tolerance on bribery and corruption, and ensure due diligence is followed.

10. Ensure all transactions are entered against the correct account GL Codes, Project Codes, and ensuring proper cost distribution to correct activities.

11. Establish and maintain a database of local vendors or facilitators; Local Government; Stakeholders; etc.

12. Other duties as may reasonably be required by the Provincial Manager or the Finance Coordinator consistent with the incumbent's qualifications and experience.

13. Any other task relevant to the main duties and responsibilities of this position, as assigned by its supervisor.

Grant Management (if any):

1. As per needed, support the Finance Coordinator in reviewing sub-grants, grantee programmatic and financial reports, and grant payment documentation.

2. Where it is requested, to provide support to the Grant Management team to provide financial management capacity building to the grantees.

3. Support the Finance Coordinator to ensure grant activities compliance with INOVASI Project and DFAT rules and regulations.

Internal Control:

1. Ensure effective internal controls, timely response to external or internal audits and other reviews, and appropriate coordination with the head office.

2. Conduct further investigation to irregularities and misappropriation related to fraud, bribery, and corruption.

3. Liaise with external parties in relation to statutory reporting/audits.

Tax:

1. Prepare withholding tax calculation for income tax article 21, 23, and 4(2) final and incorporate it in local transactions as part of payments.

2. Conduct online verification to all VAT receipts (Faktur Pajak) before submission process to Finance Department in Jakarta.

3. Prepare monthly tax recapitulation for income tax article 21, 23 and 4(2) final which will be submitted to Finance Department at Head Office Jakarta for monthly tax payment.

Administration

1. Ensure all administration functions, processes, and system implementation in INOVASI office are in-line with Palladium and Project's manual, guidelines, and policies.

2. Lead in the day-to-day maintenance of the INOVASI office and its facilities, including ensuring an effective and safe working environment, oversee the cleaner to ensure rooms are clean and tidy, coordinate security services for the building, staff amenities, furniture and equipment, stationery and supplies, phone and internet provision, hardware and software, electronic aids, IT support services.

3. Be the first point of contact for visitors to the INOVASI office,

4. When needed, be the focal point and manage all aspects of INOVASI program travel in provincial level, including accommodation bookings, transport, travel request including its safety and logistic.

5. Supervise the office helper, cleaner, and drivers, including performance management, timekeeping, and scheduling.

6. Provide administrative support to HR team at provincial level in managing personnel leave tracker, insurance and communication arrangements, mobilization, and recruitment arrangement, including meeting interviews and travel.

7. Serve as petty cash custodian and prepare the petty cash report and submit the request for its replenishment in timely manner and support other areas of financial management as required.

8. Ensure accurate and efficient management of correspondence, invitations, files, records and all its hard and soft copy filling system, include softcopy filling management on SharePoint, and also contact databases.

9. Act as provincial office Safety and Security Focal Point (SSFP) and be the first touch point of office safety and security. Ensure office, assets and personnel safety and security in all areas are compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety Guidelines and the Indonesia Project Security Guideline. Ensure the provincial Emergency Communication Tree List is updated at the provincial level and that workplace inspection check list is always conducted.

10. Maintain office asset register and ensure all receipt document needed is available in assigning assets to employees and whenever assets are returned. Ensure office asset register and asset receipt & return register is always accurate, up to date, and in coherence with national asset register managed by Office and Admin Coordinator in INOVASI national office.

11. Other operational tasks as may be needed by the Provincial Manager, including providing support to other provinces as needed.

Qualifications and Experience:

The Provincial Finance and Admin Officer will possess the following qualifications and experience:

I. Degree in Finance, Accountancy or other relevant qualification.

II. Minimum of 5 years of experience in finance, office management and/or administration, especially in support function of large scale of organization.

III. Good proficiency in MS Word, MS Excel, SharePoint use and the internet.

IV. Demonstrated ability to promote and initiate work processes and complete given assignments with minimum supervision.

V. Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with accounting and non-accounting professionals.

VI. Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Bahasa Indonesia, fluency in English advantageous.

VII. Sound problem solving and decision making skills.

VIII. Ability to work independently and as a part of a team.