Finance and Administrative Officer

Position: Administration & Finance Officer - Open to National only

Department: Finance & Administration

Place: Based at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Duration: 1 year (renewable

Expertise France in Papua New Guinea

Expertise France is the public agency responsible for the design and implementation of international technical cooperation projects and is a member of the French Development Agency Group (AFD Group). The Agency operates across four priority areas:

 

• Democratic, economic, and financial governance
• Peace, stability, and security
• Climate, agriculture, and sustainable development
• Health and human development

 

Within these areas, Expertise France delivers project design and implementation, supports capacity-building initiatives, mobilises technical expertise, and coordinates public and private know-how. The European Union (EU) and the French Government are Expertise France’s main donors.

With a view to improving efficiency and working as close as possible to the field and its partners, the Agency decentralises the operational management of its projects in countries where it has a significant, sustainable, and strategically important portfolio of activities for French cooperation. This decentralisation is reflected in the deployment of Country Offices (COs) and Project Support Units (PSUs).

Papua New Guinea is a relatively new country of cooperation for the Agency. With 360,000 km² of forests (representing 78% of the national territory), Papua New Guinea is home to the third largest tropical forest in the world. As a carbon-negative country that also hosts approximately 7% of global biodiversity, Papua New Guinea has become a strategic country of cooperation for the Agency in the fields of forestry, climate change, and biodiversity.

To support this development, the Agency has decided to structure a country directorate and a project support unit in Papua New Guinea, as of September 2025.

The PSU comprises of Procurement and Contracts, Logistics, Administration/Finance, and Human Resources services; necessary for projects implementation. The AFM therefore works closely with both the PSU team and the project teams within its portfolio.

Mission description

As part of its project team, Expertise France is recruiting a Finance and Administration Officer who will be responsible for performing a certain number of tasks relating to 1/ payment processing, 2/ procurement and contract management, 3/ compliance and audit management, and 4/ assistance with operations. He/she will report to the Finance and Administration Coordinator and will be expected to provide secondment of the Finance and Administration Coordinator when she is unavailable.

Main tasks:

1. Payment processing:

· Control that the supporting documentation for payment requests is in order

· Coordinate with other project team members, contractors and grant recipients to obtain missing supporting documentation if necessary

· Prepare and submit the payment authorisation forms

· Prepare the bank transfer authorisation requests

· Ensure that the payment records have been accurately captured into the accounting system.

· Archive all of the documents and information onto the project’s document management system

· Communicate to all issuers of payment requests on the status of their payment request

 

2. Procurement and contract management:

· Take part in the preparation of procurement procedures (RFQs, call for tenders…)

· Take part in the assessments of tenders

· Communicate with prospective suppliers or selected suppliers

· Assist in the monitoring of the contracts awarded to suppliers

 

3. Compliance and audits management

· Monitor compliance of activities with Expertise France’s policies and procedures.

· Support the preparation and coordination of run-up audits on the expenditure of the Port Moresby office

· Support the preparation and coordination of audits of grant recipients

· Assist the head office on all matters involving project expenditure verification audits

 

4. Assistance with operations

· Provide various forms of operational assistance upon request to the project colleagues and consultants/experts.

· Provide support to coordinate visa issuance and other arrangements for international experts/consultants traveling to PNG

· Provide support for all travel arrangements to support workshops/meeting including flight bookings and hotel reservations

· Apply Expertise France’s requirements in terms of harmonized filing (hard and soft files)

· Keep track of all project correspondences

· Keep track and follow-up on all programme/operations admin tasks and deadlines.

· Take part in meetings and exchanges with key partners and contribute to effective and clear communication and coordination

· Manage office supplies (stationerys/printer cartridges etc) and re-order when necessary

 

Required Profile

• Bachelor's degree in finance, business administration, Accounring, or a related field and at least 3 years of relevant work experience, including working for government organisations and/or development partners or at least 5 years of relevant work experience, including working for government organisations and/or development partners
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Excellent knowledge of PNG accounting practices and procedures and national financial regulations
• Prior experience with audits
• Technology literate with experience in the use of accounting and reporting software (in particular Excel) and other office software (Word, Outlook, other web software).
• A strong sense of organisation, rigour and autonomy
• Dynamic, proactive, able to meet deadlines
• Strong analytic problem-solving skills that support and enable informed decision-making;
• Team member, able to provide support to other team members if needed

To apply: Finance & Administration Officer (H/F)