Jobs - 28468- UN Women: Audit Specialist

UN Women: Audit Specialist

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

19-Mar-12 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Division of Management and Administration is responsible for the planning, allocation and management of financial, human and administrative resources including information communications and technology, the effective and efficient delivery of essential operations services in UN Women, continuous development and improvement in operations, policies, and methods to align with UN Women and stakeholders' evolving business needs and advisory support to the Executive Director in the formulation and implementation of the UN Women overall mission, strategy and plans of actions.

Under the direction and guidance of the Director, Division of Management and Administration, the Audit Specialist serves as the focal point for UN Women external and internal audits. S/he advises UN Women management and offices on attainment of resolution to audit findings and recommendations. S/He develops and maintains relationships with stakeholders in various entities including the UN Board of Audit, UNDP Office of Audit and Investigation, UN Office of internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and UN Women offices.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

Under the direction and guidance of the Director, Division of Management and Administration, the Audit Advisor develops and supports UN Women’s quality assurance system, designed to monitor UN Women’s operations effectiveness.

S/he will serve as focal point for and coordinates UN Women interactions with external oversight bodies, i.e. UN Board of Auditors and the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU). S/He will liaise with the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services and act as the focal point with UNDP's Office of Audit and Investigation. S/He will periodically interact with Management of UN Women, UN Board of Auditors, internal auditors, finance and legal colleagues in UN system, Inspectors from JIU. S/He will provide support to the Director in interacting with member state delegates to the UN Women Executive Board and delegates to the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly in the context of representing UN Women responses to reports of oversight bodies.

Specific duties include:

Establish and maintain UN Women’s Quality Management System introducing structure and processes. Quality management system will support application of UN Women’s operational policies and procedures and receive audit results as an input for necessary quality enhancement actions.
Monitors application of the quality systems to ensure that it is operational.
Recommends and updates operational policies and contents to ensure UN Women’s operational standards effectively support UN Women operations based on lessons learned in coordination with the programme support division.
Provide input to UNW systems development, programme/project implementation and learning and knowledge sharing strategies.
Coordination and preparation of Executive Board papers on the external audit of UN Women
Coordination and preparation of UN Women response to reports, management letters and observations from the UN board of auditors as well as UN Joint Inspections Unit.
Coordination and support to UN Women internal audits conducted by UNDP’s Office of Audit and Investigation.
Coordinate and support pre-audit missions to field offices.
Systematic follow up and support implementation of recommendations of internal and external audits.
Serves as a focal point for UN Women Advisory Committee; Support the AAC work.

Other activities

Builds and maintains close working relations with UN Women Internal and External Auditors managers.
Contributes to workshops and training on risk management, internal controls and audit.
Disseminates lessons learned from UN Women audits.
Participates in the implementation of his/her personal learning and training development plan.
Performs any other tasks as requested by the Director or the Deputy Director.

Facilitation of knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing:

Enhance staff capacity and skills of the staff through coaching, training, mentoring and other innovative measures.
Work with UN Women offices on audit planning/preparation and follow up, providing technical support and advice on critical audit areas ,corrective measures, and risks mitigation strategies.
Share knowledge across the organization on audit findings, business practices and processes improvements to enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency, transparency and accountability.

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

Ethics and Values: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.
Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen.
Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.
Working in Teams: Building and promoting effective teams.
Communicating Information and Ideas: Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.
Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating an emotionally intelligent organization.
Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards.
Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

An in-depth grasp of audit principles and practice.
Demonstrated ability to advise on and coordinate audits of headquarters and Country Office business units, internal audits, and performance (value for money) audits.
Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor work plans.
Proven conceptual analytical and evaluative skills and ability to conduct independent research and analysis, identifying issues, formulating options and making conclusions and recommendations.
Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective work relationships with counterparts and other staff/offices.
Ability to communicate technical audit matters in a simple and clear manner.
Focuses on impact and results for the client and responds positively to feedback.
Shows strong conflict-resolution skills.
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters degree (or equivalent) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Finance, or related field. A first level degree in combination with a certification as Chartered Accountant or Certified Public Accountant may be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree.
Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) designation is desirable.
Additional professional certifications (CISA, CFE) are an advantage.

Experience:

A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible professional experience in audit or a directly relevant area, several of which in internal audit.
Working experience in International Organizations is desirable.
Field experience is an advantage.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in oral and written English required. Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.