Risk & Compliance Officer

General Description of the Role

The Roving Risk & Compliance Advisor will work to identify risks that could impair the organisation reputation, information security, or general operations and suggest ways to mitigate or eliminate them entirely. The role will ensure that MCMDO remains fully compliant with relevant donors, and country regulations as well as MCMDO internal processes and policies where relevant and ensure an understanding of the necessity of compliance with those rules and regulations. As a Roving Risk and Compliance Advisor, s/he will be expected to show strong leadership and organisational skills and have expert-level knowledge of applicable compliance practices. S/he also need to have prior experience working in Risk Management or a Compliance-related role.  The role will manage risks arising from non-compliance including that of implementing partners. Roving Risk & Compliance Advisor role is two-fold, with both an advisory and an assurance and reporting aspect.

• Perform risk assessments and establish organisation’s tolerance for risk
• Support the Head of Compliance in revising the manuals due to the approved deviations.
• Support the Compliance Head in reviewing basic operating guidelines on Finance, HR, Logistics, Procurement, Compliance, and other manuals to address any compliance changes due to revisions on principles and practices of Donor, MCMDO and Government offices.
• Review organisation current compliance policies and procedures to identify areas of improvement
• Draft new and update existing internal risk and compliance policies so that they match the organisation, donor, and other stakeholders’ standards
• Conduct regular internal checks to ensure compliance procedures are followed across the organisation
• Maintaining records of compliance practices
• Establish relationships with important external bodies and stay up to date on the changes in business requirements and all relevant regulations
• Organize workshops and training sessions to educate and update employees on the organization’s, donors and stakeholders’ compliance policies, regulations, and processes
• Support the country management in the review of the risk register reports based on internal reviews and advise the executives on risk mitigation measures and implementation of adequate compliance plans

a) Risk Identification and Assessment 

In collaboration with the Head of Compliance, provide functional expertise to support the organization’s risk identification and assessment processes. Utilize detailed knowledge of the organization’s risk appetite to ensure that it is fully embedded and operationalized within the organization. The Roving Risk & Compliance Advisor will:

• Be country specialist in MCMDO risk framework tools and techniques (including risk register and quarterly compliance checks)
• Provide knowledgeable insight support to award risk assessments
• Facilitate risk management processes and sit on Country Risk Management Committee
• Anticipate and identify potential and perceived risk issues and challenges and the most appropriate solutions to address them.
• Identify and effectively manage organisational risks to maximize achievement of organisation’s objectives
• Oversee the process of conducting annual organisation-wide risk assessments to measure the likelihood and impact of identified risks, i.e., developing parameters, methods, and tools for evaluating, categorizing, and prioritizing risks- likelihood, risk consequence, and thresholds to trigger management action, in summary creating/updating internal compliance risk assessment matrix

b) Risk Prevention/Control and Mitigation   

Provide expert support to ensure risk prevention measures are fit for purpose.

• Provide training to staff on key control and compliance risk prevention measures
• Train staff/partners on fraud prevention
• Provide expert support on internal control/ mitigation design for new projects or processes
• Provide surge support for risk prevention expertise to major humanitarian incidents
• Support the Partnership and Compliance Manager in the management of partnership process and implementation of action plans by sub-recipient
• Provide advice on donor, government and organization guidelines and policies and compliance queries during programme implementation.

• Annual workplan of compliance / spot checks/audit reviews on key management controls e.g., field office audits, vetting spot checks
• Review/attend key control meetings/ process and ensure that they are working & provide professional input e.g., attending Finance/Logistics/Procurement/Programme/ICT/HR control compliance meetings
• Support the Compliance Head in reviewing the waiver requests from various departments.
• In collaboration with Finance and Programme/Support departments review the basic spending trend of individual projects and flag major underspend, overspends, disallowances for the management.
• Tracking of compliance trends including emerging and recurring compliance issues

d) Incident Response/Investigations (Fraud/Multifaceted) 

In collaboration with the Head of Compliance, provide independent reporting of risk, incidents & investigations

• Support in designing and undertaking of investigations into occurrences and incidents that have materialized and where controls, policies and procedures may be found to have been inadequate. This includes, but is not limited to, allegations of fraud.
• Independent reporting of risk appetite and management of escalations as appropriate
• Independent reporting of incidents using MCMDO exiting tools that affect ability of the organisation to hit its objectives
• Lead /coordinator of fraud & multifaceted investigations
• Fraud – focal point/ investigation training
• Whistle blowing service provision & follow up

e) Action Tracking and Assurance (In Collaboration with the Head of Compliance)

• Track progress of risk actions so that heads of departments can provide appropriate assurance on risks.
• Track audit/ investigation findings
• Coordinate assurance documentation and risk appetite status to complete Risk Register
• Review of sample Finance, HR, Logs, Procurement, ICT, Programme and Partners documents; update on any change in the compliance environment, distribute findings from the sample test action points as well as follow up with the respective departments on the updates and Humanitarianism.

Work Schedule:

The job of Roving Risk & Compliance Advisor is full time job and requires him/her to work in accordance with the organization working hours and may be required to work after the normal working hours

Other duties:

• Network with MCMDO  Compliance departments to keep informed of donor and organization compliance matters (related to compliance)
• Ensure all processed information go along with data protection requirement
• Any other task assigned by the line manager.

Reports to: Executive Director

Announcement No: Hrv/149/2023

Qualifications:

• A minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience with progressive responsibility in operations and/or programming with experience in NGO/UN and corporate sector. And at least 3 of these years entailing compliance and risk management experience
• A Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in a business-related subject, preferably in accountancy, Business Administration from a reputable University.
• Knowledge of compliance regulations; knowledge of internal control framework
• Proven, extensive experience in financial statements preparation
• Experience and understanding of financial audit methodologies
• High level of numeracy, accuracy, and analytical skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office 365, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and information management systems
• Adequate experience in risk and compliance management
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills and analytical skills in written and spoken English. Attention to detail and ability to use own initiative.
• Excellent interpersonal skills which facilitate to work effectively with all department members, and to collaborate with internal and external auditors when needed
• Experience in dealing with institutional donors such as USAID/BHA, ECHO, EU, Irish Aid, UN Donors, Private Donors among other donors and experience of their reporting requirements and guidelines.
• Willingness to travel to field sites on a regular basis and work in a challenging environment.