Ethics and Assurance Manager at Mercy Corps

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.

In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we collaborate to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.

Now, and for the future.

Mercy Corps has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2007, with a staff of around 400 people, with the overall country goal being to support vulnerable communities through crises, while fostering programs that build resilience and promote long-term change. Mercy Corps’ national office is in Goma with field offices in North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Kasai and a small support base in Kinshasa. Mercy Corps DRC’s key programming areas include a combination of longer-term development and immediate humanitarian response programs to 1) Improve water service delivery and ensure equitable access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services in urban and rural areas; 2) Improve food security and nutrition; 3) Promote diversified livelihoods, economic recovery and development; 4) Support peacebuilding and local governance. Mercy Corps DRC’s humanitarian programs aim specifically to assist populations affected by the conflict and crisis in Eastern Congo.

Mercy Corps DRC's portfolio is one of the largest and most complex across the agency, implementing 50M USD annually in programming. Mercy Corps DRC is recognized as a leader in humanitarian and development programming in Eastern Congo, with large-scale impact in communities. We champion and lead innovative solutions in a complex operating environment and are well positioned to influence stakeholders (donors, peer organizations, private sector and government) to implement solutions that will have a lasting impact and bring about real change at the community level.

General Position Summary

The Ethics and Assurance Manager (EAM) will work under the Ethics Director who serves as the Mercy Corps DRC focal point to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps’ Code of Conduct and ethics policies and procedures. The EAM will examine, review, and analyze records, reports, financial information and management practices to ensure compliance with laws, regulations and Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures and will investigate potential violations of Mercy Corps’ Ethics policies, with an emphasis on fraud and corruption. The EAM will also work with the Ethics Director to assist the country management team in developing, implementing and monitoring effective financial and operational controls over activities and offices to mitigate risk.

Ethics Incident Response

• Following Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures, serve as a country focal point for the internal reporting of any allegations of Ethics violations, including fraud and corruption.
• Liaise with the Ethics Director, Headquarters Ethics team, and other teams as needed, in the resolution of all reported fraud and corruption incidents.
• As agreed with the Ethics Director and Headquarters Ethics department, conduct inquiries and investigations to determine the facts, circumstances and scope of any fraud and corruption allegations raised.
• Collect, analyze and document the results of fraud and corruption investigations and communicate observations and recommendations with the collaboration of the Ethics Director, as appropriate.
• Prepare final reports to fully document the investigation and resolution of incidents. Reports will be reviewed by the Headquarters Ethics team.
• As a member of the DRC Ethics team, liaise closely with the PAQ Department in implementing the country Community Accountability Response Mechanism (CARM).
• Respond to Ethics violation referrals received through the Community Accountability Response Mechanism (CARM).

Ethics Training and Awareness

• Assist the Ethics Director and country management team with the implementation of new Headquarters or country Ethics policies and procedures, acting as a catalyst for change and acceptance and supporting smooth implementation.
• In coordination with established onboarding processes, assist with the onboarding of new country team members to ensure awareness and understanding of Ethics policies.
• Conduct and/or coordinate regular anti-fraud and anti-corruption prevention for country staff, partners, and contractors.

Internal Controls

• Assist the Ethics Director and country management team in determining effective and efficient solutions to operational issues that ensure compliance with Mercy Corps’ policies and donor regulations, mitigate the risk of fraud or corruption, and facilitate the achievement of program objectives.
• With the Ethics Director, assist program, operations and finance teams with implementing standard procedures or, as necessary, developing and documenting enhanced procedures for high-risk program activities, in particular those providing a direct financial benefit to participants (e.g., vouchers, cash distributions), requiring high value procurement, or the distribution of in-kind goods.
• In coordination with the Ethics Director and country management team and program managers, assist in maintaining the country-level Risk Register to identify key risks and document strategies to mitigate these risks. Assist in managing the quarterly update process and ensure communication of action plans.
• In coordination with the Ethics Director and relevant teams, perform periodic internal control reviews of in country financial, procurement, human resource, and logistics procedures.
• In coordination with the Ethics Director and program and monitoring and evaluation staff, conduct field reviews of program activities to ensure that adequate controls are in place and are functioning properly. Communicate findings and work with the relevant departments to correct weaknesses and improve controls as needed.
• As agreed with the Ethics Director and program and finance teams, advise on the development of monitoring plans for partners, including sub recipients, key vendors and other partners that must adhere to ethics policies. In coordination with relevant teams, perform periodic compliance reviews of partners.
• In coordination with the Ethics Director and country management team and HQ Finance, assist with the follow-up and resolution of external audit or Mercy Corps Internal Audit findings.
• Perform other related special projects and duties as determined and assigned by management.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• With the Ethics Director, develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

Organizational Learning

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility

Senior Ethics Officers (or as appropriate)

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Ethics Director

Works Directly With: Headquarters Ethics team (which has authority for Ethics reporting and investigation matters); country senior management team; Program Directors/ Managers; Finance, Compliance, and Operations teams; HR Manager; and all country staff.

Click here to apply:  Mercy Corps Careers - Ethics and Assurance Manager