Najib Seguya
Grants, Operations & Subcontracts Professional
Kampala
Summary
Grants, finance, and operations compliance expert with over 13 years of experience as a grants, operations finance, and compliance expert overseeing financial management in Uganda, including more than 11 years of experience managing grants and contracts for complex donor-funded programs, and 9 years supporting USAID-funded programs
Demonstrated expertise in managing the systems used to manage USAID and other donor projects valued at up to $21.5 million, including oversight of contract budgets, procurement of goods and services, grants management, logistics, human resources, accounting and finance, financial reporting, and record keeping.
Strong familiarity with project management policies and procedures; from startup to closeout.
Demonstrated communication and collaboration skills to successfully lead diverse teams, ensure timely completion of deliverables, and improve organizational processes.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
9
9
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Strategic Activities Fund Team Leader
Chemonics International Inc.
09.2018 - 06.2019
- Grants and Subcontracts budget management, including monitoring of expenditures against budget, as well as monthly forecasting of expenditures for the Home Office Project Management Unit (PMU) to ensure that the Chemonics International Corporate budget was met.
- Served as focal point of contact for all project staff and grantees on all issues concerning grants and subcontracts. Ensured that needs and inquiries are promptly addressed to develop and continue positive relationships between subcontractors, grantees, and the project.
- Developed the Grants and Subcontracts manual of policies and procedures for the entire lifecycle of local subcontracts, grants, procurement, and government partner activities.
- Reviewed and edited terms of reference for grants activities.
- Established and maintained a tracking system for all activities under the SAF including preparation of tenders, evaluation of proposals, monitoring of subcontract performance, invoicing and payment. This included maintaining and updating, revising the SAF vendor database as well as collecting monitoring and evaluation data on SAF funded activities.
- Closely liaised with, and provided all necessary assistance to technical staff and the COP on issues related to the development, refinement, production, data management and monitoring of an administrative system to track activities and performance of organizations who receive SAF assistance under the project.
- Reviewed accounting records and entries made into the Dynamics 365 system for accuracy before review by the finance team.
- Developed procedures for, and assisted with budgetary and financial aspects of grant proposals, recipient financial management capacities and disbursements including recipient determination of responsibility.
- Assessed the training, technical assistance and commodity needs of potential grantees and in particular, established controls for expenditures and reporting on use of funds related to these needs.
- Reviewed subcontractor/grantee deliverables and accountabilities to ensure compliance before review by the technical team.
- Conducted internal audit of all associated pre-award and post contract management practices and materials.
- Supervised and managed the performance of Regional SAF managers and SAF Assistant.
- Developed branding and marking plans with grantees and ensured environmental compliance.
Grants and Subcontracts Manager
Chemonics International Inc
01.2022 - Current
- Served as the main point of contact for Activity staff and beneficiaries for issues concerning the Grants and Subcontracts and developed and maintained positive relationships between subcontractors, grantees, and the Activity.
- Developed activity-specific grants and subcontracts policies and procedures for the entire lifecycle of local subcontracts and grants including the Risk Management Framework.
- Led the grants and subcontract cycle right from the solicitation to closeout phases.
- Conducted screenings and pre-award risk assessments of partners, assessing recipient financial management capacities and developing capacity building plans.
- Decides on the grant or subcontract type for partnership agreements, in coordination with the Operations, Finance, and Compliance Director and technical leads.
- Negotiated budgets and final grants and subcontract agreements.
- Supervises the day-to-day implementation of all grants and local subcontracts under the program, including monitoring of grantees and subcontractors.
- Reviews subcontract and grant deliverables and accountabilities for completion of milestones and reviewed invoices for compliance and accuracy. Ensured that these were entered into the Abacus Accounting system.
- Developed and disseminated capacity building plans for grantees to ensure organizational and company efficiencies.
- Developed and incorporated pay-for-results mechanisms/Results-Based Grants management systems and ensuring relationships between planned interventions, milestones, and payment.
- Supervisions and mentorship of Grants and Subcontracts Associates and Assistant.
- Served as the project Operations, Finance and Compliance Director in the absence of the Finance director.
Grants Manager
Tetra Tech – Associates in Rural Development (ARD)
01.2020 - 12.2021
- Oversaw grants implementation strategy of USHA’s $4 million grants program.
- Provided strategic oversight and guidance to ensure transparent, compliant, effective, and efficient management of grant activities.
- Advised the Chief of Party and other technical staff on effective procedures for integrating the use of grants into USHA operations.
- Provided the overall leadership of the grant cycle from pre-solicitation, solicitation, evaluation, pre-award risk assessments, negotiation, award, implementation, and grant closeout.
- Ensured full compliance with Tetra Tech ARD Home Office and USAID policies and procedures, guiding the project team on applicable rules and regulations for grants under contract management.
- Managed and administered USHA grants to non-governmental organizations and District Local Governments.
- Worked with the grantees and technical teams across USHA’s three regional offices to align work plans to grant agreements.
- Worked with the Tetra Tech ARD home office to train and mentor USHA technical staff in the administration of grants under a USAID contract.
- Ensured administrative and financial tracking of all USHA grants.
- Organized and participates in site visits to grantees by both the technical and finance teams to ensure full compliance with the grant terms and conditions.
- Reviewed quarterly reports for achievement of milestones, burn rate, and compliance with applicable USAID regulations.
- Direct supervision of the Grants/Finance Specialist.
Operations and Compliance Director
Chemonics International
01.2019 - 01.2020
- Oversaw the operations, finance, procurement, subcontract, and grantee processes of the $21.5 million Activity, in adherence to Chemonics as well as U.S. Government rules and regulations.
- Worked with the Chemonics home office team to monitor the project budget.
- Worked with office managers in each of the four regional offices to ensure that all expenses were incurred in accordance with corporate field accounting policies and U.S. government procurement regulations.
- Reviewed and administered office security protocols for the four regional offices and Kampala office.
- Coordinated with the chief of party, deputy chief of party, and technical team, as a member of the senior leadership team, to advise on the appropriate mechanisms for executing grants and partnerships.
- Ensured that YLA’s operational structure was functioning at optimal efficiency to expedite execution of YLA interventions.
- Served as a key liaison coordinating with YLA implementing partners and provided ongoing guidance and mentorship to the operations team in USAID and Chemonics’ best practices, standards and requirements for all aspects of field office operations as well as provided support for the grants administration process, including providing training to grants staff.
- Developed and ensured staff’s thorough completion on organizational procedures for managing accounting office documents and reports.
- Direct supervision of the Grants Director, Human Resource Manager, Finance and Administration Manager, Regional Office Manager.
Strategic Activities Fund Manager
Chemonics International
11.2017 - 08.2018
- Developed, reviewed and edited terms of reference for technical activities funded by the grants and SAF.
- Managed and monitor grant and SAF processes pursuant to detailed policies and procedures established through USAID and US Government rules and regulations, Chemonics home office policies, and local procedures.
- Identified grants and subcontracts implementation delays and liaise with the technical, grants and administration teams in building capacity and eliminating bottlenecks to ensure timely submission of deliverables.
- Prepared financial forecasts for subcontractor and grantee expenditures in line with implementation schedule.
- Worked closely with the SAF Team Leader to maintain a tracking system for all activities under the SAF, including preparation of tenders, evaluation of proposals, and monitoring subcontract performance and ensuring partners properly collect M&E data on SAF-funded activities.
- Participated in evaluation of applications for SAF and/or grant funding, including preparation of written reports on the process of evaluation and results of selection.
- Analyzed budgetary and financial aspects of grant proposals, recipient financial management capacities, and disbursements, including recipient determination of responsibility.
- Contributed to annual work planning, grantee performance management, and strategic communications.
- Assessed the training, technical assistance, and commodity procurement needs of potential grantees.
- In collaboration with the respective Activity Manager, reviewed subcontractor/grantee deliverables to ensure technical compliance.
- Participated in the periodic internal audit of all associated pre-award and post contract management practices and materials.
- Supervised SAF Assistant in line with their scope of work.
- Prepared monthly and annual SAF cash projection for finance and administration review and budgeting purposes.
Strategic Activities Fund Specialist
Chemonics International
10.2015 - 10.2017
- Manage and monitor grant and SAF processes pursuant to detailed policies and procedures established through USAID and US Government rules and regulations, Chemonics home office policies, and local procedures.
- Maintain a tracking and filing system for preparation of tenders, evaluation of proposals, and monitoring of subcontract performance, invoicing, and payment. This includes maintaining, updating, and revising the SAF vendor database as well as collecting monitoring and evaluation data on SAF-funded activities.
- Work with technical staff to ensure the proper preparation and timely execution of RFPs, as requested, with preparatory background research for development of scopes of work for RFPs.
- Analyze subcontractor’s proposals, and awards to ensure adherence to applicable rules and regulations.
- Review and analyze subcontractor’s budgets for allowability, allocability, reasonableness, and consistency, and negotiate budgets, as well as terms and conditions of subcontract execution, in coordination with technical, finance and operations teams, as applicable.
- Drafted selection memos, sole-source justification and negotiation memos as required, and other justifications.
- Processed grants and subcontracts deliverables including seeking appropriate approvals and submitting to Finance for payment.
- Maintained tracker of all grants, subcontracts, procurements, and other activities under the SAF.
Grants Officer at the Civil Society Fund-Management Agent
Deloitte East Africa
07.2013 - 10.2015
- Coordinated and participated in the grant award process from solicitation, pre-award assessments to contracting, and procurement plan approval.
- Monitored subgrantee advance and liquidation balances and updated the grants tracker.
- Reviewed financial reports from sub grantees on a Quarterly basis to ensure financial compliance against grant budget. Summarized the areas of weakness identified and provided targeted capacity building or on-site support supervision and further action.
- Conduct financial monitoring and spot checks of the sub grantees’ projects to provide assurance that they are operating within the financial management best practices and preparation of reports on such visits thereafter.
- Ensure sub grantees reporting compliance and ensuring that all issues arising from the accountability reviews are addressed in a timely manner to meet the turnaround time deadline.
- Tracking portfolio turnaround time to help improve the efficiency of operations within the CSF Management Agent.
- Provided capacity building assistance to sub grantees, including providing support supervision through field visits, trainings, one-on-one sessions and financial management support.
- Prepared cash flow projections to determine disbursements to all the 96 CSF subgrantees within a specific period.
- Conducted start up trainings of the CSF sub grantees in the use of the financial reporting tools and conducting Quarterly follow ups to ensure financial reporting compliance.
- Prepared sub grantees for audit and generally coordinating the Audit exercise of the Civil Society Fund from the grants section.
Audit Senior Associate
Deloitte East Africa
08.2011 - 06.2013
- Led and participated in audit assignments of several donor funded organizations i.e. USAID, E.U, Dan Church Aid, DANIDA and UNHCR. Among the clients audited was ICOBI (USAID), RUFORUM(E.U),AVSI (EU & USAID), Kalangala HBVCT (CDC),LWF Uganda (Various),HEIFER International (Various),Uganda Virus Research Institute etc. I obtained knowledge about various donor compliance regulations, including procurement.
- Executed detailed audit procedures, including reviewing transactions, documents, records, reports and procedures and conducting audit tests to support professional opinions as to the fair representation of client financial statements.
- Preparation of financial statements, reports and analytical reviews as necessary.
- Prepared work papers which record and summarize audit procedures performed and ensure that working papers are filed per approved firm guidelines.
- Developed recommendations for corrective action/improvement.
Grants Intern
John Snow Inc.
03.2011 - 08.2011
Volunteer
United Nations Development Program
01.2009 - 02.2011
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Development Economics
Makerere University
Kampala 08.2007 - 09.2010
MBA -
Herriot Watt University
United Kingdom 12.2019 - 12.2025
Skills
Teamwork and collaboration
Problem-solving
Mentoring
Quality improvement
People management
Performance improvement
Attention to detail
Strategic planning
Project management
Budget management
Analytical skills
Audit reporting
Project planning
Quality assurance
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Timeline
Grants and Subcontracts Manager
Chemonics International Inc
01.2022 - Current
Grants Manager
Tetra Tech – Associates in Rural Development (ARD)
01.2020 - 12.2021
MBA -
Herriot Watt University
12.2019 - 12.2025
Operations and Compliance Director
Chemonics International
01.2019 - 01.2020
Strategic Activities Fund Team Leader
Chemonics International Inc.
09.2018 - 06.2019
Strategic Activities Fund Manager
Chemonics International
11.2017 - 08.2018
Strategic Activities Fund Specialist
Chemonics International
10.2015 - 10.2017
Grants Officer at the Civil Society Fund-Management Agent
Deloitte East Africa
07.2013 - 10.2015
Audit Senior Associate
Deloitte East Africa
08.2011 - 06.2013
Grants Intern
John Snow Inc.
03.2011 - 08.2011
Volunteer
United Nations Development Program
01.2009 - 02.2011
Bachelor of Arts - Development Economics
Makerere University
08.2007 - 09.2010