Water & Sanitation Engineer

Contract Grade: B

Contract Length: 2 years

Date Needed By: August 2012

New Post or Replacement: New post as it is for a specific Water & Sanitation Engineer/ replacing the Civil Engineer position which focuses on contractor school construction (which we will NOT be doing again)

Accompanied / Unaccompanied:  Unaccompanied

Exact Job Location: field based in Grand Bassa with regular travel to Lofa and Montserrado (we will locate the engineer where the number of Watsan construction contracts is greatest – so may change from year to year);

Reports To: ACDP

Responsible For: Line management and capacity building of three County engineers and the contract management of ALL engineering contracts within the country program

Job Purpose: To ensure that the three County engineering departments in Lofa, Grand Bassa and Montserrado are accountable and provide quality technical support to the area based programs through the delivery of specific construction projects

• Ensure technical quality, policy and procedural compliance of all construction contracts undertaken by Concern
• Provide capacity building to the County engineers and the staff of the County engineering departments;
• Provide technical support for all WASH related infrastructure and ensure compliance with SPHERE standards/ Government sanitation policy on CLTS etc.
• Supervise construction contract management from contractor appraisal/ tendering procedure/ contract issuance/ contractor management/ payment certification of measured contracts etc. according to the work plan and donor deadlines.
• Provide technical support for other construction contracts expected to be road/ culvert/ bridge works and possibly some community led school construction
• Ensure that staff and contractors are compliant and fully understand their obligations when signing the program participant protection policy (P4) and where non-compliance is suspected, to inform a member of the CMT (most likely the Area Coordinator) so that the appropriate action can be taken by the Country Director

 

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

HR and capacity building:

• Line management of three County engineers: review job description; establishing and monitoring annual targets in line with sector program plans and with regular PDRs;
• Technical and management capacity building of the engineers in the support, encouragement and coaching of technical department staff: water technicians/ construction supervisors etc.
• Ensure team building in line with the Country/ County programming ethos and priorities: regular review of ALL engineering team members;
• Ensure understanding and compliance by all stakeholders with the Program Participant Protection Policy; and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) standards
• Promote and address gender and equality issues as well as minimising/addressing  the risk of HIV and AIDS

Coordination and liaison with sector programs & agencies:

• Meet monthly with the Area Coordinators to ensure that construction contracts are in line with the needs of sector programs: Education, FIM and especially Health (WASH);
• Meet and engage with County level officials of Ministry of Public Works
• Monthly meetings in Monrovia with ACDP and to attend the Liberia WASH Consortium (LWC) technical meeting;
• Share and learn with other members  (Oxfam/ ACF/ Tearfund/ Solidarite) & associate members (Water Aid etc.) on key technical aspects of the provision of improved water & sanitation facilities;
• Meet weekly with the Area Coordinator to provide an update of the engineering projects in the County;
• Meet weekly with the Engineering team of the County; and daily working schedule with the County engineer and on-site supervisors

Preparatory drawing, designs and BoQs:

• Ensure water point & latrine drawings and designs are compliant with Government/ SPHERE and Concern standards
• Ensure we update the National/ County level water point mapping exercise on an annual basis
• Ensure the quality of technical designs, BoQs etc. for water points/ towers etc. any culverts and bridges are in line with recommendations from the Concern Head Office  Emergency Engineer
• Ensure that designs and BoQs are precise for the planning and provision within community led school construction

Management of the tendering process:

• Appraisal of all contractors: for WASH and Road/ bridge works (no contractor for school construction is envisaged)
• Ensure that the tendering procedure is compliant with Concern’s logistics & procurement policies;
• Ensure that all necessary documentation is provided for the assessment of bids
• Produce with the County engineers reports with recommendations  from the tendering committees to the ACDP/ CD depending upon the value of the contract to be awarded

Contracts management:

• Ensure that all contracts to be awarded are within the approved budget  
• Prepare all construction contracts for sign by the CD/ ACDP/ AC depending on the contract value and their authorization levels
• Prepare documentation for sign off of all payments within the contract payment schedule
• Ensure that all payments have a certification and that measurements have been made and agreed by the contractor

Monitoring, on site supervision and reporting:

• Ensure there is a database at County level showing the status of all ‘active’ construction contracts
• Provide a monthly update of all construction contracts to the ACDP of ALL construction contracts in the country program
• Conduct monthly expenditure tracking by reviewing the monthly management accounts for those budget line specifically allocated to engineering contracts (this will be two or three budget lines in each of the County sector program cost centres) ;
• Ensure accurate feedback on engineering programme progress is provided to the budget holders (Area Coordinator/ Education coordinator) and to the Country accountant
• Ensure work plans are being monitored and all construction sites are regularly supervised
• Establish and supervise M&E plans and frameworks for the monitoring of construction contracts
• Ensure that appropriate process monitoring data is collected for use in donor reporting by the appropriate program manager
• Conduct end of project cost effectiveness and efficiency calculations for outcome level reporting
• Conduct monthly stock checks with the storekeepers to ensure that ALL construction materials are accounted for/ tally with request orders/ and that the documentation of the release of these items is compliant with our logistic policy & procedures (procurement/ warehousing/ stock control etc.)

Funding proposal and budgeting:

• Provide technical input and advice to program managers/ technical advisors (for Health/ FIM)/ Education coordinator in the development of funding proposals that require construction components
• Ensure that working calculations are provided for all construction related budget lines to program managers – for donor budgets and periodic internal budget revision exercises

PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL

Education, Qualifications & Experience Required: 

Qualifications in a discipline related to water & sanitation engineering - Bachelor degree in Water & Sanitation engineering or in civil engineering (with specialization in water, sewage, public health)

Experience of working in West Africa or elsewhere under similar conditions

Technical experience of water testing and sewage treatment and the design & construction of urban water mains (with the increasing likelihood of greater urban based interventions)

Strong staff management skills in building an efficient and effective team that is accountable for the resources allocated

Strong experience in organising tender processes: contractor appraisal/ assessment of technical designs/ BoQs etc; and development of construction contracts;

Practical experience in design (usually set by GoL) & construction of water points: hand dug wells/ boreholes/ communal tap stands/ communal latrines/ household latrines;

Understanding, knowledge and experience of the methodology of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) – which is official Government policy here in Liberia;

Practical experience in design of culverts & bridges; supervision and management of community led road improvements and community led school construction.

Experience in managing and training of staff and contractors on design, construction, and technical standards

Warehouse and stock management experience to ensure compliance with Concern policies & procedures (Concern logistics function) in the request and release of construction related materials

Sound IT skills, including Word, Excel and AutoCAD and excellent command of oral and written English and has ability to prepare project related reports/documents.

DESIRABLE

Education, Qualifications & Experience Required:

Any additional qualifications in Public Health related subjects

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements:

Ability to lead and work as part of a team

Flexible, adaptable, sense of humour, patience and most importantly initiative

Excellent facilitation and interpersonal skills

Analytical and problem solving skills

Ability to work under pressure often to strict deadlines

Methodical and thorough

Cross cultural awareness and sensitive

Awareness of gender issues

Empathy with organisational goals

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date    22 April 2012 CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.