Financial Manager: Statutory Compliance and Risk Management at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

Key responsibilities:

Finance Strategy:

• Develop a targeted CSIR finance strategy and operational plan to enable CSIR strategy.
• Lead and direct CSIR financial planning to achieve financial targets within the required timeframes, including setting financial KPIs, overseeing the annual internal and MTEF budget process, providing financial input into the CSIR Shareholders Compact, updating financial forecasts throughout the year.
• Provide expert advice on financial governance, risk and compliance to support strategic decision making.
• Lead and manage CSIR financial governance risk and compliance initiatives.
• Represent the Finance portfolio at CSIR Exco and Opco meetings and present financial governance, risk and compliance matters.
• Ensure shared financial governance, risk and compliance knowledge across the CSIR by providing direction on the training requirements and training material for financial and non-financial staff on relevant policies, procedures, business applications and business processes.
• Review and improve business processes to improve the internal control environment and communicate changes to assist the organisation with continued compliance of policies, procedures and legislation.
• Expert advisor on National Treasury, PFMA, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and other applicable financial legislation

CSIR financial reporting and analysis:

• Accurate and timely preparation of annual CSIR audited financial statements.
• Distribution of annual audited annual CSIR financial statements to relevant stakeholders, within required timeframes

Governance, risk and compliance:

• Regularly review PFMA / National Treasury instructions and amendments and changes to the reporting framework and other applicable financial legislation
• Advise CSIR leadership and management of changes to legislative requirements that will have an operational impact on the business environment in the short and long term.
• Keep abreast with changes to the relevant accounting framework and standards and reporting requirements by stakeholders, liaise with the external auditors or experts, advise management of the possible impact on systems, processes, CSIR policies and the annual financial statements disclosure as a result of these changes and assist with implementation process to ensure reporting is aligned and complies.
• Co-ordinates the implementation of relevant CSIR financial policies, procedures, and guidelines to ensure financial compliance and good governance.
• Regularly review and recommend appropriate financial policy amendments to ensure relevance based on legislative changes or operational requirements to CSIR leadership.
• Support the Group Manager: Finance to develop and maintain an effective and efficient financial internal control environment to ensure accurate and reliable financial information and high governance standards in line with legislation and CSIR policies.
• Ensure that the financial reporting framework is adhered to.
• Co-ordinate identification and communication of financial risks and mitigating controls for input into the CSIR organisational risk register.
• Co-ordinate implementation of improved procedures, processes, and guideline to mitigate the financial risks and ensure good governance and financial compliance.
• Ensure the induction and training of CSIR staff on governance, policies, business processes and financial systems.
• Prepare and request resolutions to be approved by the Accounting Authority (CSIR Board) or CSIR Executive.

Strategic stakeholder management and reporting:

• Build trusted relationships with internal and external strategic stakeholders, such as National Treasury, DST, SARS, investment banks, auditors, technical experts, through active engagement and continuous communication to ensure a common understanding of requirements, deadlines and timely resolution of any issues that could impact negatively on compliance to statutory or other requirements and to represent the CSIR at stakeholder forums / planning committees, etc. relevant to financial governance, risk and compliance matters.
• Key contact person for strategic stakeholders for any requests or matters of concern.
• Assist and advise internal and external to ensure an understanding of the business environment, legal framework, business processes and solutions and the impact of changes to legislation on the organisation’s finance function.
• Department of Science and Innovation (DSI): timely submission of annual and quarterly performance, PFMA and other ad hoc reporting required.
• National Treasury (NT): timely submission of annual ENE/MTEF budget reports, provide financial input into shareholders compact, and other ad hoc reporting required.
• South African Revenue Services (SARS): timely submission of applicable statutory returns.
• Subsidiaries, Joint ventures, and Associates of the CSIR: oversight on legislative requirements with regards to CSIR Group structure and oversight of the preparation of annual statements for all subsidiaries.

Financial Management and Administration:

• Financial management.
• Request and obtain inputs from the unit Financial Managers to prepare and submit the monthly VAT returns for the CSIR to SARS in accordance with the statutory deadline.
• Obtain inputs and documentation and prepare and submit information for SARS VAT reviews and liaise with SARS on any queries. Identify and inform management of any risks identified during this process and provide recommendations on actions to mitigate the risk.
• Manage the department budget to ensure planned activities are incurred within budget.
• Finance service support
• Support divisional finance managers and management teams to expedite and resolve financial queries from internal and external stakeholders effectively and in a customer-oriented manner.
• Responsible to deliver all financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), within the Statutory Compliance and Rosk Management portfolio.
• Develop and implement relevant KRAs and KPIs within the Finance department to drive delivery of agreed service levels and the achieve the finance strategy.

Oversight of CSIR/ Auditor General Audits:

• Plan and manage an efficient annual audit process with the Auditor General (AG)/Internal Auditors
• Prepare and assist, by providing system and process descriptions and other information requirements, on internal audit requests/reports and annual/specific external audits to comply with the stated objectives of the audit and financial requirements and to assist the auditors in meeting the set deadlines. Where areas of weaknesses are reported, review, provide management comment and implement corrective action as agreed.
• Lead the implementation of corrective action from internal and external audit findings to improve control environment.
• Embed the CSIR vision, mission and values within the Finance team

Culture, leadership and people management:

• Guide and assist HRM’s on cross-cutting matters impacting their area of responsibility (risk and compliance, etc.).
• Create a culture of customer service and continuous improvement.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A bachelor of Commerce Honors degree or equivalent NQF 8 qualification with least fifteen years’ experience of which five years’ must be in Public Entities or State-owned Enterprises. This includes:
• A combination of Private and Public sector experience;
• Financial reporting in accordance with legislative requirements in a state-owned enterprise will be beneficial;
• Working experience with VAT legislation
• Working experience on a financial ERP solution
• Dealing with various internal and external stakeholders such as auditors, bankers, etc.
• Sound understanding of financial legislation applicable to state owned entities;
• Working knowledge of financial business systems, trends and integration point.