Executive Finance Secretary

1) Executive Summary
A Finance Secretary in a public-private research organization dealing in law, policy, and technology should be designed as a senior strategic finance and compliance leader, not merely an accounts administrator. In public-sector and CPSE practice, the equivalent benchmark role is the Director (Finance): a board-level or near-board-level executive who is responsible for finance and accounts, financial planning, budgeting, costing, financial control, policy formulation, and statutory compliance.
For a research institution, however, this baseline must be extended. The role should also cover grants management across the full lifecycle, donor and contract compliance, internal controls, procurement governance, performance reporting, and data-governance-linked financial oversight, because research bodies often operate through sponsored projects, multi-source funding, sub-grants, consulting assignments, and digitally enabled research operations.
In short, the modern Finance Secretary for such an organization should function as a financial steward, compliance custodian, grants controller, risk manager, and strategic advisor to the Board/CEO. Strong internal governance is especially important for think tanks and research institutions because donors, governments, and partners increasingly expect transparent management, documented policies, cost allocation discipline, and measurable accountability.

2) Recommended Position Definition

• Proposed Title
  

Finance Secretary (Special Associate to CFO, Grants & Compliance)

• Role Level
  

Mid-Senior to Associate-Senior leadership role; ideally part of the executive leadership team and, depending on structure, reporting to the Chairwomen / CEO / Managing Director with a dotted-line relationship to the Board / Finance Committee / Audit Committee. This mirrors CPSE practice, where the finance head is positioned close to the CMD and the Board.

• Role Purpose
  

To lead the organization's financial strategy, budgeting, grants and donor finance, statutory compliance, internal controls, treasury, procurement governance, and management reporting, ensuring that funds are used lawfully, efficiently, transparently, and in alignment with the institution's research mission in law, policy, and technology.

3) Critical Importance of the Position in a Law, Policy & Technology Research Organization
A research institution in this domain is unlike a conventional corporate finance environment. It may simultaneously manage:

• government-supported projects,
• grant-funded research,
• CSR-supported initiatives,
• international collaborations,
• consulting / advisory contracts, and
• digital platforms, databases, software tools, cloud services, or data-processing environments.
• That mix increases complexity in budgeting, cost allocation, reporting, procurement, donor restrictions, and data-related governance.
  

Because the institution works in law, policy, and technology, the Finance Secretary must also understand that financial decisions are often tied to regulatory obligations, public accountability, research ethics, vendor due diligence, and data protection controls. The finance office therefore becomes a mission-enabling function, not a back-office ledger team.

4) Detailed Job Description (Core Responsibilities)
A. Strategic Financial Leadership

• Develop and implement the organization's financial strategy, annual operating plan, multi-year budgets, and project-level financial models in alignment with institutional priorities and research programs.
• Advise the CEO/Board on financial sustainability, cost structures, liquidity, reserves, capital planning, and funding diversification.
• Support leadership decision-making through scenario analysis, cost-benefit review, and evidence-based financial recommendations.
  

B. Budgeting, Costing & Research Project Finance

• Lead organization-wide budgeting, including departmental budgets, thematic research program budgets, center/project budgets, and indirect cost allocation.
• Build costing models for research proposals, consulting assignments, technology pilots, policy labs, fellowships, events, and publications.
• Monitor burn rates, utilization patterns, budget variances, and the financial health of all grants and contracts.
  

C. Grants, Donor & Sponsored Research Administration

• Oversee the finance components of the full grant lifecycle: pre-award budgeting, award acceptance, post-award compliance, monitoring, reporting, closeout, and audit support.
• Ensure proper segregation of direct and indirect costs, project-wise accounting, time/effort or personnel-cost documentation where applicable, and grantor-specific reporting.
• Maintain systems for donor restrictions, milestone-linked disbursements, utilization certificates, subrecipient/vendor review, and grant closeout documentation.
  

D. Accounting, Reporting & Financial Statements

• Ensure accurate books of account, timely monthly/quarterly/year-end closes, management accounts, statutory financial statements, and supporting schedules.
• Prepare board-level dashboards on income, expenditure, utilization, overhead recovery, receivables, payables, committed liabilities, and cash position.
• Establish project-wise and fund-wise accounting structures to support research grants, CSR projects, consulting engagements, and restricted funds.
  

E. Treasury, Cash Flow & Fund Management

• Manage cash flow forecasting, liquidity planning, banking relationships, payment discipline, and investment of surplus funds according to approved policy.
• Ensure availability of working capital for payroll, research operations, technology subscriptions, vendor commitments, and time-sensitive project expenditure.
• Monitor receivables from grants, contracts, reimbursements, and institutional partners.
  

F. Compliance, Statutory Filings & Regulatory Governance (Supporting Role)

• Ensure compliance with all applicable corporate, tax, audit, grantor, and sector-specific obligations. If the entity is a Section 8 company, this may include filings such as AOC-4, MGT-7, ADT-1, director KYC and other event/time-based filings under the Companies Act framework.
• If the institution receives foreign contributions, ensure compliance with the FCRA, including lawful receipt and utilization, annual return obligations, audit-related documentation, restrictions on transfer, and the cap on administrative expenses unless prior approval is obtained.
• Support compliance for CSR-funded projects and conditions attached to philanthropic, academic, or public funding arrangements.
  

G. Internal Controls, Audit & Risk Management (Supporting Role)

• Design and maintain internal controls across budgeting, procurement, payments, reimbursements, grants, payroll, contract approvals, asset management, and reporting.
• Build a control environment covering risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and ongoing monitoring, consistent with recognized grants-control good practice.
• Coordinate internal audit, statutory audit, donor audit, and special-purpose audit responses, ensuring timely corrective action.
  

H. Procurement & Vendor Governance

• Oversee procurement planning, competitive selection processes, contract financial review, vendor onboarding, payment controls, and contract compliance.
• Ensure that procurements for software, research services, fieldwork, consultants, publications, events, equipment, and data services follow approved policy and funding restrictions.
  

I. Data Governance & Digital Finance Controls (Supporting Role)

• Work with legal, IT, and research teams to ensure that finance systems and funded projects involving digital personal data are aligned with applicable data-governance obligations under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, including notice, lawful purpose, processing governance, and incident preparedness.
• Oversee financial controls around ERP/accounting systems, access management, payment workflows, cyber-risk-related vendor due diligence, and digital records retention.
  

J. Board / Committee Support

• Serve as secretary or lead coordinator for the Finance Committee and support the Audit Committee with agendas, papers, financial notes, risk updates, compliance reports, and action tracking. DPE guidance for CPSEs specifically emphasizes audit committees, disclosures, and risk reporting as part of governance.
  

K. Team Leadership (Co-Operations Role)

• Lead the finance, accounts, grants finance, procurement control, and compliance support teams; set SOPs, approval matrices, and training plans.
• Build finance capability across program managers and principal investigators so budget ownership is distributed but controlled.
  
  

5) Key Competencies
The ideal Finance Secretary should demonstrate:

• Strategic financial planning and budgeting
• Grant and donor finance administration
• Internal control and audit readiness
• Regulatory and statutory compliance orientation
• Public accountability and governance maturity
• Analytical ability and management reporting skill
• High integrity, documentation discipline, and stakeholder management