Procurement Officer - Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary

You will coordinate local procurement activities and processes to acquire goods and services in support of the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your knowledge and experience will allow you to successfully coordinate the quality and efficiency of procurement and purchasing activities and ensure stewardship, integrity, transparency, and accountability.

• Coordinate fully compliant procurement systems and operating procedures. Assess effectiveness and efficiency and recommend improvements. Contribute to ensuring compliance with CRS procurement principles, standards, policies, donor regulations, and local statutory requirements.
• Coordinate with various departments to develop and maintain an up-to-date procurement plan with all quantities, quality and delivery requirements for goods and services. Provide pricing information to assist budget holders with budget preparation.
• Coordinate the sourcing process and perform various activities to assist with ensuring the best value for money: market research, cost estimates, solicitation documents, bidding process facilitation, supplier identification and research, quality, and availability of goods assessment, negotiation, contract/purchase order, and other documents preparation.
• Communicate with other procurement staff and various program and operations units to coordinate and track goods/services delivery and receipt and keep everyone informed of the status. Collect information to confirm that goods/services delivered are what have been ordered in the correct quantities and quality, they arrive on schedule and at the right cost.
• Maintain correspondence and constant contact with suppliers to follow up on the execution of contractual terms and conditions, and handle issues if needed. Monitor and report on supplier performance, noting current and/or potential issues and/or inefficiencies and assist with contract/purchase order modifications.
• Accountable for transparency within the procurement department by ensuring a complete, accurate, and up-to-date document trail of all procurement processes, vendor files, procurement, and inventory database to assist with control and accountability. Prepare reports and facilitate document retrieval.

Required Languages - English, Dagbani

Travel - include a percentage of required travel, if applicable. Could be stated as Must be willing and able to travel up to 20 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Good planning and coordination skills and ability to prioritize competing priorities effectively
• Good analytical skills with the ability to make independent judgements and decisions
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented with a focus on meeting customer needs
• Ethical conduct in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics
• Good negotiation, communication, and relationship management skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional certification is a plus.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint). Experience with database management systems (e.g. MS Access) highly desirable.