Job SummaryThe Contracts and Grants Officer will be responsible for the drafting and administration of sub awards, consultant’s contracts, letter of agreements and purchase orders. S/he will provide assistance to the Contracts and Grants Manager (CGM) on sub award-making processes, including issuance of annual programme statements, request for applications, request for proposals, review of applications, negotiations with applicants, selection of sub awardees, and close out of completed grants. In addition, assist in ensuring efficient grants and contracts management and monitoring on compliance with USAID rules and regulations.
Key responsibilities:
Grants:
- Assist the CGM with issuance of Annual Programme Statements, preparations for grant selection process, pre-award survey and award negotiations;
- Maintain productive relationships with client / partner grant officers, agreement officers, and contract administrators;
- Assist the CGM with drafting, administering and closing of grant agreements.
- Undertake pre-award assessment process and ensure both acquisition and assistance type of organization have the capacity to appropriately receive funding
- Assist with cost analysis of proposal and application budgets for cost realism –budget reviews
- Assist to convert proposal and application budgets into Sub-award Financial Report budget format or payment and deliverable schedule
- Assist to track grantee cost share contribution for each sub-recipient as appropriate.
- Assist in review of grantee financial reports and providing feedback for appropriate corrective action
- Ensure the implementation of Special Award Conditions (SACs) that were included in each award agreement
- Develop and maintain tracking systems on other identified sub-recipients’ compliance issues
- Provide training and orientation to sub recipients on donor rules and regulations in line with the grant agreement. as well as the organization’s policies and procedures.
- Liaise with Finance to track and update Sub-award Tracker (SAT) with all sub-recipient information and circulate monthly.
- Generate monthly subs budget to actual reports and circulate to respective staff
- Monitor the budget revisions thresholds for sub-recipients and ensure amendments to sub-agreements are developed and processed in a timely manner as need
- Facilitate the sub-agreements’ close out process
- Conduct compliance assessment in line with grant agreement and rules and regs
Contracts:
- Assist in the development of contractual documents;
- Standardise administrative procedures for efficient award and sub award management;
- Assist the CGM with reviewing and negotiating critical award terms and conditions;
- Maintain sub-contract files and keep the CGM up to date on sub contract status and any contract compliance issues;
- Review of contractor budgets for reasonableness, allocability and allowability of all costs and line items;
- Verify and ensure contract support documentation is complete;
- Assist with drafting of consultants’ contracts and Letters of Agreements;
- Manage and update the contractual tracking tool and provide periodic status reports;
- Coordinate and consolidate responses to contractual requests from sub awardees and consultants;
- When required, assist the finance team with reviewing relevant contract invoices and raise any issues related to payments;
- Collaborate with the finance staff to monitor sub awardees performance.
Applied Knowledge & Skills:
- Mastery of donor (USG and non-USG) rules and regulations.
- Effective customer management skills are essential to developing and growing critical business relationships within and outside of the organization.
- Influential leadership skills to facilitate and support transitions to new systems at the unit level.
- Highly articulate (compelling and persuasive) oral and written communication skills to convey complex business concepts and information both inside and outside of the organization.
- Strong and effective ability to develop, articulate and implement.
- Good knowledge of strategic planning methodologies and practices.
Problem Solving and Impact:
- Has very strong customer orientation and demonstrates service values.
- Beyond complex issue analysis, highly developed crisis management skills are critical at this level.
- Keen sense of judgement.
- Expanded decision rights carry both positive and (potentially) negative impact on the unit and the organization.
Supervision Given/Received:
- Works in team environment as a mentor and leader.
- Mentors other staff to grow the competencies that are essential for success.
- Demonstrated abilities to increase team work and support.
- It is expected that at this level, there will be demonstrable modelling of behaviours that reflect organizational and unit values.
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree on international equivalent in Business Administration or related field.
Experience:
- Minimum of 5+ years’ experience in a position of grants and contracts for the Federal Government acquisition system or a Non-governmental Organization (NGO)
- At least 5 years of negotiating experience and direct management of a diverse portfolio of complex contracts and other agreements.
- Comprehensive knowledge of donor (USG and non-USG) rules and regulations including but not limited to USAID, DHHS, DOE, etc.
- Experience in USG acquisition and assistance process.
- Experience working in a not-for-profit or non-governmental organization (NGO)
- Experience working with international donors.
Typical Physical Demands:
Typical office environment. Ability to sit and stand for extended periods of time; ability to lift 5 – 50lbs.
Technology to be Used:
Personal Computer, Microsoft Office (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), e-mail, telephone, printer, calculator, copier, cellphone, PDAs and other hand held devices.
Travel Requirements:
Less than 10%
The successful candidate will be based in the FHI 360 Pretoria, Hatfield office.
To apply, visit our career site on https://www.fhi360.org/careers and using the Job ID 2019200176 submit your cover letter and CV.