Senior Resident Accounting Advisor

The Palestinian Liberation Organization, for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority, has received financing from the World Bank, International Development Association in the amount of USD 3.5 million towards the cost of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Improvement Project (the Project). The Project development objective (PDO) is to enhance the expenditure controls, financial accountability and procurement management of the Palestinian Authority. To achieve this PDO, the project will mainly cover four components: (i) Component 1- Improving Budget Expenditure Management, Financial Control and Cash Planning; (ii) Component 2- Improving Financial Accountability of the PFM System; (ii) Component 3- Modernizing Public Procurement; and (iv) Component 4- Project Management. 

The Project is being implemented by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in cooperation with the High Council for Public Procurement Policies (HCPPP) and State Audit & Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB). HCPPP will manage the implementation of Component 3. A Project Management Unit (PMU) is established at the MOFP to manage the implementation of this project, as well as consultants in various technical fields, to manage the overall implementation and coordination of the Project. 

MOFP is considering the appointment of qualified consultants. The selected consultants will be housed within MOF in Ramallah. The expected duration of each assignment is one year on a part-time basis.

Individual Consultants shall be selected for the above-mentioned post in accordance with the World Bank’s procedures as specified in the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for Borrowers under Investment Project Financing dated July 1, 2016 (“Procurement Regulations”).

Senior Resident Accounting Advisor

Scope of Work: 

Reforming of FMIS system. 

Work as main member in the FMIS development team; this mainly includes working (Back to Back) with another recruited IT FMIS expert on following up with the FMIS hosted company (BISAM) on diagnosing issues in the system, developing solutions, and ensuring a robust accounting cycle is impeded in the system with zero-usage of other supporting Microsoft office programs, like, excel and access. 

Reconstruct (integrate) the chart of account in alignment with GFSM 2014 classifications

The chart of accounts is essentially a coding structure used to organize all accounting entries used in an organization’s general ledger. The chart is used by accounting software to aggregate information into the financial statements. It is usually sorted according to account number, to facilitate the task of locating specific accounts. 

WBG Government organizes accounting data for the general ledgers of their budgetary units using charts of accounts. Revisions to coding structures and corresponding financial reporting systems are made irregularly to reflect accounting practices in the WBG more accurately.

The main scope of this assignment is to draw links between these accounting codes and GFS codes, and use these links to constitute a bridge table that can be used to facilitate GFS compilation through the automated accounting/financial reporting system.

Such bridging tables is necessary to link every single item in the source data (Bisan system and other sources) to its appropriate GFS framework classification (GFSM 2014 codes). The link to the chart of accounts (the government’s accounting code structure) should be established directly and incorporated into the accounting system. The bridge table typically contains both a many-to-one and a one-to-many structure; many accounting codes may be linked to a single GFS code, and a single accounting code may need subdividing. In this manner, GFS can be generated directly from accounting records by automated information systems.

each possible entry is assessed according to (1) the type of GFS stock position or flow that corresponds to the entry, and (2) the appropriate GFS category. For example, the consultant must first determine whether the entry is a transaction or stock position. If it is a transaction, he/she will classify the transaction according to the GFS framework (e.g., under revenue, expense, etc.). The process should use transaction flows recorded Bisan, based on the chart of accounts. In some cases, the amount of detail in the chart of accounts is insufficient, and additional transaction-level detail (or other supplementary information) is required to split the balance into two or more GFS categories. Each entry in the budgetary central government chart of accounts should correspond to its respective GFS code. Information from other sources may be needed to ensure that all relevant transactions have been captured and classified.

It is important to keep data of the bridge table’s development so that other (future) compilers and users can gain a full understanding of the links. Whenever a bridge table is updated, the data should also be updated so that users might understand the break(s) in the time series.

Provide quality assurance revisions for main Financial Reports.

Provide a quality assurance advise to Accountant General on main reports issued by the accounts department, this includes subject to audit final accounts, monthly financial reports, etc. 

Draft a Public Accounting Policy Manual.

This task aims at developing a manual to guide government financial officials towards a unified accredited set of accounting policies. An example of these policies could include specifying an accounting policy manual for payments that is paid by a third party directly to suppliers, policy of Recording tax clearance and deductions and other revenue, disclosure policies for petroleum accounts, recording of In-kind grants, etc.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Core Qualifications:

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Minimum University degree in Accounting, Finance or related degree, and a professional accounting qualifications such as (CPA, CMA, CFM, CISA, CertIFR ,CFE).
• Minimum of 10 years of advanced experience in Accounting or related field.
• Experience in IPSAS.

• Solid understanding of PFM including deep understating of Palestine’s PFM laws, ordinances and existing processes.  
• Experience in ISSAI, IFRS and International Standards on Auditing (ISA).
• Can clearly understand and explain technical accounting concepts as applied in Palestine.
• Experience with projects involving large scale organizational change and big data processing.
• Advance computer, Database and applications skills including Financial excel and Access DB.

• Excellent communication and writing skills in English and Arabic.

• Knowledge of Financial systems development and IT audit practices.

Interested candidates are requested to send their CVs and a cover letter to the Ministry of Finance – The International Relations and Projects Directorate, at this email address: [email protected] indicating the position in the subject e-mail.

The closing date for applying is COB of March 20, 2021. Please clearly indicate the position in the subject line of your email.