Angus Oqallak

• Reporting to the Assistant Deputy Minister of Income Assistance & Career Development, the Regional Director Family Services is accountable for coordinating regional program and service planning and managing the delivery of all departmental programs and services provided to residents of the region.
  The Regional Director is accountable for administering front line career development programs that provide income support to allow residents to take skill training, thereby enhancing their employ ability and their potential for self-reliance. In addition, the Director is responsible for the delivery of income assistance programs that satisfy the basic needs of residents who cannot provide for themselves such as Income Assistance, Seniors Fuel Subsidies, Seniors Supplementary Benefits, Daycare User Subsidies and Senior Burial Benefit in kind only to Iqaluit.
• Positions that report directly to the Regional Director IA & CD include:
• Regional Manager, Income Assistance
• Apprenticeship Officer
• Career Development Officer (2)
• Regional Senior Financial Analyst

Responsible for coordinating the financial budget operations (development and control) of the Region by:

- Supporting Corporate Services HQ in coordinating the development of the combined O&M budgets in accordance with Nunavut Government direction and in response to the specific program and administration needs of the region.

- Establishing strong budget controls to ensure expenditures meet the requirements of FAM and GAAP. Communicating to the Regional Director and program manager’s areas of improvement needed with internal financial controls and responsibilities.

- Performing analysis of monthly expenditures and providing monthly financial variance and year-end projections to management to guide them in adjusting projected expenditure levels to remain within their overall allocations. This responsibility includes both identifying budget/expenditure issues as well as recommending the appropriate course of action to address the situation.

- Understanding fully the purpose of the Financial Administration Manual & Financial Administration Act and being able to interpret and provide guidance on its policies and regulations for all regional staff members.

- Preparing monthly statements of expenditures and commitments and free balances for each of the activities of the O & M budget.

- Establishing internal procedures to record expenditures incurred by the department.

- Liaising with senior staff of the Regional Department of Finance, Family Services Headquarters and other agencies when unique situations arise.

- Gathering and providing information to Corporate Services Division HQ for preparation of Financial Management Board Submissions.

- Ensuring that requests for travel advances and subsequent claims are in accordance with the Collective Agreements, directives issued by FMB, Personnel Procedures Manual, and the Department of Finance.

- Coordinating efficient, timely and accurate processing of all accounts payable and commitments for the regional offices ensuring the necessary backup including expenditure authorities and supporting documentation are in place.

- Assisting in the development and writing of financial documents such as Contribution Agreements and Service Contracts.

- Reconciling all vote 4/5 budgets and processes and adjustments to ensure that the budget balances at year-end.

- Preparing special year-end reports or reconciliations for the Department of Finance, Third Party funding agencies and/or Family Services HQ.

Acts as Payment Authority, as defined and required by the Financial Administration Act, for all departmental commitment and payable transactions:

- Understanding fully the concepts and the requirements of accounting and expenditure authorities. Acting as accounting officer in providing payment authority for transactions within the signing authority limits as authorized by the Comptroller General.

- Ensuring that an authorised expenditures officer initiates the proposed expenditure(s) and that the expenditure is in accordance with GN policies and regulations.

- Supervising the maintenance of commitment control records to ensure budgets are not exceeded.

- Ensuring that regional managers are kept current with financial regulations, directives, procedures and that change are understood and followed.

- Directing the implementation of financial procedures established by the financial management board for the Regional office.

- Ensuring that expenditure and revenue transactions are properly coded within appropriations and financial regulations so that commitment and payment authority can be properly exercised.

- Maintaining commitment control records to ensure budgets are not exceeded.

- Exercising commitment and payment authority under the Financial Administration Act.

- Developing and implementing systems and procedures to enhance internal controls without adding needless overhead to the process.

- Identifying existing or potential problems with the financial records by reviewing Free Balance Reports and recommending appropriate solutions to management.

- Ensuring payments are made in accordance with payment directives and signed contracts.

- Ensuring that reporting and repayments of accountable advances are received in a timely manner.

Responsible for regional administrative matters to ensure an efficient and consistent regional operation by:

- Developing and conducting training sessions for program managers and finance officers on financial procedures as required and when requested.

- Interpreting and explaining financial directives/rulings and their impact on operational procedures.

- Developing and implementing procedures to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Regional office.

- Expeditiously ensuring Personnel Administrative matters are addressed in such areas as: the preparation and maintenance of job descriptions, the recording of all performance appraisals, interpreting and advising staff on the Collective Agreement, the maintenance of confidential files, and liaison with the Department of Human Resources.

- Maintaining office furniture inventory (ordering new furniture as required) as well as a computerised system for all service contracts and a record storage system in compliance with Records Management Procedures.

- Processing and maintaining purchasing/inventory records and Corporate Credit Cards to ensure proper procedures are followed.

Responsible for the financial administration of Career Development Grants and Contributions by:

- Monitoring financial activities as outlined in the contribution agreement through monitoring sessions and advises divisional specialist in monitoring and developing contribution agreement amendments in communities.

- Develops and maintains an efficient and effective monitoring and filing system of all current year and prior years’ G&C.

- Prepares FMB submissions to reallocate budgets between program categories as required, in conjunction with program manager or specialist.

- Monitors G&C budgets and communicates when a program category budget is fully expended or nearly maximized in collaboration with divisional staff and advises on year-end re-allocation of funds by program stream.

- Prepares project commitment upon agreement approval, processes payment through accountable advance, and clears accountable advance through credit note.

- Reviews recipients’ financial books and records as required and in collaboration with program specialists, current procedures and protocols for collecting financial reports and makes recommendations for changes.

- Reviews in detail audited or unaudited financial statements, follows up management letter recommendations, and initiates recovery of any unspent funds.

- Reviews and analyses recipient’s cash flow at determined frequency

- Reviews unreleased grants and contributions funding at year-end and recommends setting up accruals, and for Vote 4/5 federal funding, makes recommendation whether to carry over unused funds to the next fiscal year or return to funder depending on the terms of the agreement.

- Determines and manages risks such as slippage, over/underspending, actual expenses not in line with budgeted expenses and cash flow deficits for contribution agreements.

- Designs and develops payment claim forms, cash flow templates or other templates, and applicable application forms in collaboration with divisional staff.

- Liaises with internal and external auditors when required.

- Liaises with departmental managers to ensure that an up-to-date spreadsheet is maintained on departmental funding programs and projects to inform senior management.

- Advises program manager or specialist in developing quantitative and qualitative performance measures and benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of the grants and contributions programs.

- Analyzes complex information on federal funding initiatives and assist departmental staff in interpreting this information.

The incumbent works with residents of Nunavut to ensure programs and services are aimed at increasing self-reliance and are responsive to local needs by:

· Working with the communities to develop community-specific productive choice models

· Working with the community to ensure they it has a good understanding of the various programs and services delivered by the Department and the GN

· Communicating with the public to get feedback and input on the extent to which existing programs and services appropriately address community needs and seek advice on potential improvements

· As part of the Nunavut Poverty Reduction Strategy explore potential initiatives to make families more self-sufficient with adequate and appropriate resources from Government

Supervision and support to Income Assistance Delivery Staff by:

· Participation in recruiting and hiring staff

· Orienting new staff to the Income Assistance delivery office

· Ensuring new staff are trained, and that existing staff get training required to remain competent

· Developing a work plans for the approval of the Regional Director that will identify goals, objectives and desired results for Income Assistance Office

· As part of the approved work plan, travelling, at least twice per year to each community for which the manager has responsibility to assess progress towards agreed upon performance objectives with local workers and the overall capability of the office operations

· Consistently monitoring staff performance and imposing progressive disciplinary action when required.

· Conducting annual performance reviews

· Reviewing cases and casework (regularly) with staff to ensure adherence to policy and ensuring appropriate casework standards are implemented

· Assisting staff in difficult or contentious cases

· Delivering Income Assistance as necessary

· Coordinating and tracking client referrals

· Coordinating trend analysis to determine client and programs needs

· Assisting in program reviews

· Becoming a subject matter expert on the Income Assistance Delivery System (ISDS) so as to be a support to income assistance workers in the Income Assistance office

· Following up on incident reports prepared by Income Assistance Workers

· Ensuring that Income Assistance Workers comply to office standards such as Records Management, file maintenance and the protection of client information at all times

· Ensuring that information collected in conjunction with Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada are maintained as per negotiated agreements.

Administration of Income Assistance budget by:

· completing variance reports

· Ensuring compliance with legislation, policy, regulations and directives

· Providing input into regional budget submissions

· Ensuring all audit reports are acted upon in a timely fashion

· Following up on outstanding client overpayments

· Following up on all outstanding cheque issue: cashed unrecorded, stop payments and void cheques as required

· Participating in and following up on audit requests from the Department of Finance and the Office of the Auditor General

· Participating in year-end exercises

· Ensuring that the Income Assistance Office is properly outfitted with office equipment and supplies and notifying the Regional Director of these needs in a timely fashion.

Develop and maintain effective relationships with local community agencies and organizations by:

· Participating in interagency groups

· Assessing and monitoring community needs, gaps and duplication of services

· Participating in evaluations

· Providing program reports to community and regional councils

· Assisting local groups to acquire resources required to meet local needs that are unmet

· Delivering presentations on programs and services as required.

§ Created, updated, and maintained database supporting the administration and financial requirements of the Government of Nunavut in the areas of financial management, asset management and contract administration

§ Supervised two financial processors for daily operations

§ Created management, administration, and financial reports for management to be used in the strategic decision-making process

§ Provides administrative support in Applying Principles and Procedures, Client Service, Project Finance, Contracting, Research and Analysis to Headquarters, Regional and Client department Contacts

§ Educates and facilitates Principles and Procedural applications to Government of Nunavut personnel on a regular basis

§ Ensuring all steps in the Financial Process is completed efficiently and effectively.

§ Preparing expenditure vouchers for all payments and applying the appropriate financial coding,

§ Ensuring that payments are applied to outstanding obligations as authorized by official departmental contracts

§ Forwarding completed expenditure vouchers to Manager of Financial Services for the application of payment authority signatures

§ Completing data entry of approved expense vouchers after all appropriate authorizations have been obtained

§ Verifying data entry into Free Balance Accounting system by other members of the processing team to ensure that they are accurate and confirm to all accounting requirements

§ Verifying data entry into the Free Balance Accounting system by other members of the team to verify and that the information is consistent with the data on the expense voucher

§ Analyzing documentation supplied by the managers and bringing any irregularities to the attention of the Manager of Accounting Operations for action

§ Maintaining a secure area for cash holdings as confidential and sensitive information

§ Appropriate distributions of GN accounts Payables RTD Cheques

§ Proper Receipt of all Revenue and the proper remittance to Department of Finance

§ Ensuring that all invoices and financial documents directed to Finance are accurately logged into the centralized document tracking system and forwarded to the proper responsibility centre

§ Ensuring that appropriate documentation is complete, correct, accurate and legal, prior to entry into the Free Balance Information System

§ Ensuring that appropriate documentation required for processing is present including assignment of the account coding string and compilation of the required back up documentation

§ Verifying that proposed expenditures are justified by performance and that the price was confirmed by authorized expenditure officers

§ Ensuring that the expenditures are accurate and are for the purpose for which the appropriation was established

§ Ensuring that the expenditures are in accordance with government policies, regulations, and Statutes

§ Ensuring that vendor numbers exist in the financial system and arranging for new vendor numbers as they are required

§ Identifying the date on which the cheque should be issued to conform to the requirement for all Nunavut contractors/suppliers to be paid within 20 days of the receipt of the invoice

§ Ensuring that the appropriate signatures are obtained and that the signing officers have the authority to do so as authorized by specimen signature records and departmental signing authority spreadsheets

§ Recording and reconciliation of Visa transaction reports

Reporting to the Director, Corporate Services, the Manager of Finance and Administration provides financial analysis, financial reporting to central agencies, finance, and administrative management services to the Department of Family Services.

The position is responsible for the Department’s integrated accounts payable and accounts receivable functions, on-going development and implementation of financial procedures, financial training, internal controls, management reporting systems, accounting, and financial records management.

The position is the recognized expert in providing financial and administrative advice and direction to the Department including, the Deputy Minister, the Assistant Deputy, and Divisional Directors. The incumbent sets standards and is an advisor, trainer and coach for the Unit’s finance and administrative staff for accounting, financial records management and office management that support all departmental Divisions not only in headquarters but also the three regional offices.

. Ensuring financial responsibilities are properly exercised through:

· Acting Director of Corporate Services when needed

· Exercising payment authority up to $250,000 and spending authority to $100,000

· Supervising the accounting and reporting of financial transactions to meet with the statutory requirements, GAAP, FAA, and Government year-end requirements

· Providing financial analysis and undertaking special projects requested by senior and executive management; and

· Preparing expenditure management reports, year-end reports, and other reports.

· Implementing departmental year-end procedures, schedules, reconciliation, and reports as required by the year-end instruction manual of the Department of Finance

· Establishing procedures and monitor daily financial control of the department’s budget to ensure financial responsibilities are properly exercised including:

· Monitoring the accuracy of financial documents, prior to payment

· Managing the payment process for supplies and materials

· Recommending appropriate LCA authorities

· Supervising maintenance of commitment control records to ensure budgets are not exceeded

· Reviewing contracts to ensure that they are in accordance with Government contracting procedures and consistent with the objectives of the respective program(s)

· Reviewing payments to ensure that they are made in accordance with payment directives and with the signed contracts

· Reviewing payroll reports and Free Balance reports and identifying problems with the financial records and recommending solutions; and

· Monitoring the distribution of Free Balance management reports to program managers (budget variance analysis)

· Monitoring staff who are accountable for completing monthly reconciliation of three major bank accounts for the Income Assistance Division

· Arranging for the audit of Vote 4 funds administered by the Career Development Division at HQ and in the field.

· Providing expertise and establishing standards and monitoring implementation of financial management through headquarters and in 3 decentralized regional offices

· Coordinating training sessions for program managers, finance officers and staff on financial procedures as required and as requested (e.g., use of Free Balance, LCA and other purchasing tools)

· Designing new and modifying existing databases and forms to reflect department statistical and financial needs

§ Examining GN contracting authority contract documents.

§ Monitoring GN contracting authority RFP and Tender documents.

§ Reviewing bid and proposal documents submitted by contractors.

§ Analyzing progress reports and accompanying reporting documents submitted to GN contracting authorities by contractors.

§ Examining contractor documentation of employment records and supporting records from sub-contractors.

§ Reviewing training documentation and records.

§ Reviewing GN reports of Bonuses and Penalties to determine accuracy and relevancy to actual contract reports.

§ Reviewing annual GN Contract Activity Reports and Procurement Activity Reports an evaluating in terms of relevance to accomplishing NNI Policy implementation activities.

§ Providing liaison services between GN contracting Authorities and Contractors with human resource development offices and training resources.

§ Producing clear and concise reports detailing NNI compliance levels in specific GN contract activities.

§ Providing evaluation and recommendations for increased levels of policy compliance.

§ Monitoring and advancing progress of achieving the four primary objectives of the NNI Policy.

§ Recommending processes and procedures to contractors to enhance and ensure proper accounting and reporting.

§ Promoting a consistent use of accepted reporting and accounting templates and forms by contractors and GN Contracting Authorities.

§ Coordinating, as and when required, communications between the contractors and contracting authorities and human resource development offices; and

§ Compiling and preparing an annual report on progress and developments relating to the implementation of the NNI Policy in the Nunavut territory.

§ Creates, updates, and maintains database supporting the administration and financial requirements of the Government of Nunavut in the areas of financial management, asset management and contract administration

§ Creates management, administration, and financial reports for management to be used in the strategic decision-making process

§ Provides administrative support in Applying Principles and Procedures, Client Service, Project Finance, Contracting, Research and Analysis to Headquarters, Regional and Client department Contacts

§ Educates and facilitates Principles and Procedural applications to Government of Nunavut personnel on a regular basis

§ Ensuring all steps in the Financial Process is completed efficiently and effectively.

§ Preparing expenditure vouchers for all payments and applying the appropriate financial coding,

§ Ensuring that payments are applied to outstanding obligations as authorized by official departmental contracts