Public Financial Management Experts, Audit at Adam Smith International (ASI) - Abuja, Sokoto, Bauchi

Adam Smith International are an award-winning professional services business that delivers real impact, value and lasting change through projects supporting economic growth and government reform internationally. Our reputation as a global leader has been built on the positive results our projects have achieved in many of the world’s most challenging environments.  Adam Smith International has a strong corporate presence globally, with 146 current projects across 49 countries and over 1,000 staff and associates. Headquartered in London, our regional headquarters are based in Africa (Nairobi, Abuja, and Pretoria), Asia Pacific (Sydney) and South Asia (Delhi), with numerous registered offices across Africa and Asia.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Public Financial Management Expert, Audit

Tracking Code: 787-112
Locations: Abuja, Sokoto, Bauchi
Department: Public Sector Governance
Position Type: Full-Time/Regular
Timing: This programme is expected to run from 2017-2022

Job Description

• We are actively seeking international and regional/Nigerian experts on a long-term basis to work within one of the targeted Federal States of Nigeria.
• In brief, the experts working in this area will be expected to undertake activities and tasks related to the following:
• Public Sector Audit:  The consultant shall work with the Office of the Auditor General to improve audit quality, coverage and findings. The Office of the Auditor General in each state is mandated to conduct financial and performance audits of state government and LGA spending. Nonetheless, often these audits are never carried out, and even when they are their findings are not used effectively. The consultants shall assist this Office in the selected states to improve the quality and quantity of their performance and financial audits with a focus on health, education and WASH spending/programs.

The Project

• The purpose of the State-to-State (State2State) contract is to increase the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of selected state and local governments (LGAs) in Nigeria.
• This will be achieved by strengthening systems to improve the delivery of services in key sectors (basic education, primary health care, and water, sanitation and hygiene - WASH); increasing the efficiency of key governance operations (with a focus on public financial management [PFM] and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation); increasing government’s responsiveness to citizen needs and priorities; and improving government and civil society capacity to manage conflict.
• State2State will work together with partner state governments to reform these sectors, and will learn and replicate best practice examples from other states.  State2State will support, scale-up, accelerate and institutionalize new and existing initiatives.
• State2State is a governance programme. Better governance is a means towards the ultimate end of poverty reduction by measurably improving primary health care, basic education and WASH services. Conflict mitigation is a core theme of the USAID/Nigeria Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). The Mission expects that improved governance and public services coupled with a Do No Harm approach, conflict mitigation strategies and tools will contribute to reducing violent conflict in the targeted areas.

Background

• Nigeria’s federal constitutional structure consists of three tiers of government: federal, state and local. The majority of basic services, including education, health care and WASH, are the responsibility of state and local governments.
• A host of challenges in carrying out their mandate, which are of three fundamental types, confronts subnational units: governance capacity constraints, financial resource constraints, and sectoral technical capacity constraints. State2State will primarily address the first group of constraint, with supporting interventions on the second type.
• Other USAID/Nigeria-supported health, education and WASH activities will address the third type of constraints.
• Governance capacity constraints are especially problematic in the realm of public financial management.
• The capacity of state governments to plan their annual budgets, linking them to medium-term expenditure frameworks and sectoral strategic plans, remains weak. As a result, state governments routinely spend only a fraction of their total budgets.
• Despite the passage by many states of Fiscal Responsibility Acts to parallel the federal Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, these planned and expended state budgets remain highly opaque. A 2015 study found the overall condition of state budget transparency in Nigeria to be “deplorable,” with an average state score of 26 on a scale of zero (complete lack of transparency) to 100 (complete transparency). 
• Despite the passage by many states of Public Procurement Acts to parallel the federal Public Procurement Act of 2007, state procurement processes also lack transparency, are highly susceptible to manipulation, and are a significant source of corruption. Finally, systems of internal financial controls remain weak; audits frequently are not conducted, are of poor quality, or are manipulated to cover up malfeasance.

Duty station:

• The experts will be expected to travel to and undertake long-term assignments in the targeted Federal States.

Required Skills
Key competencies and experience:

• Experts should have the ability to deliver Technical Assistance of an international standard to Nigeria’s Federal States, and to work effectively in politically sensitive and challenging environment. You should relish working in a team, should be innovative, energetic, positive, and genuinely committed to achieving lasting change in your work.

The position requires the following skills and experience:

• A post-graduate degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics (or related degree) and/or 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Hands-on experience in public sector audit.
• Strong background in audit policy and implementation at subnational level.
• Prior experience in developing policies and procedures to ensure the effective and efficient administration of audit at a sub-national level.
• Knowledge and understanding of fiscal decentralisation and revenue sharing arrangements.
• Competent in identifying legislative gaps and recommending relevant amendments/new pieces of legislation.
• Ability to deliver technical advice and effectively work with government counterparts in a politically aware manner.
• Strong experience in designing and delivering technical training to counterparts, as well as mentoring.
• Ability to demonstrate experience and knowledge of using initiative and being client-orientated.
• Excellent communication, inter-personal, and team-working skills.
• Ability to develop and manage relationships with key stakeholders both within government and the wider environment.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online