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Home > Jobs > Employment Opportuni... > Professional/Technical

Job #	082177
Job Title	Special Assistant to the Vice President
Job Family	Corporate Governance/Ethics
Location	Washington, DC
Appointment	International Hire
Job Posted	10-Nov-2008
Closing Date	13-Dec-2008
Language Requirements	English [Essential]
Appointment Type	See Job Description Below

Background / General description

As part of the World Bank Group, the Vice Presidency for Institutional Integrity (INT) shares in the Group’s overall mission of poverty reduction.  INT’s fundamental role within the Bank Group is to help detect and deter fraud and corruption in the use of the Group’s financial resources, so that those resources are used effectively to benefit the poor people that they are intended to benefit.  In contributing to the Bank Group’s overall mission, INT works closely with other change agents across the Group to:

•  Help detect and deter fraud and corruption in Bank-supported contracts by: 
•  Professionally investigating allegations of fraud, corruption, collusion, coercion, or obstruction (the five Bank-sanctionable practices) in Bank Group activities; 
•  Seeking Bank sanction against firms and individuals that have engaged in any sanctionable practice; 
•  Undertaking detailed implementation reviews (DIRs) of Bank-supported projects to detect indicators of possible fraud or corruption; and 
•  Using information available to INT (including from the Voluntary Disclosure Program) to help operational staff design and implement projects in ways that minimize fraud and corruption risks.
•  Help client countries to fight fraud and corruption by: 
•  Referring investigative findings to the investigative and enforcement authorities in those countries and working with authorities, as requested, to follow-up; and 
•  Collaborating in multilateral efforts to mitigate the risks of fraud or corruption in development activities.
•  Enforce the highest standards of professional integrity among Bank staff by: 
•  Investigating specified allegations of staff misconduct involving significant fraud or corruption; and 
•  Mining the lessons learned from those investigations to undertake outreach programs and also correct the Bank’s enabling environment.

Working with others in the international development institutions, INT’s principal goal is measurably to reduce the amount of development assistance funds lost to fraud, corruption and abuse and increase the quality and results of development efforts.  Results are reported in an annual integrity report that contains aggregated data, outcomes and generic descriptions of significant cases. To ensure its independence, INT’s Vice President (VP) reports directly to the President of the World Bank Group. 

INT is currently pursuing a staffing initiative along multiple discipline and functional lines to support a sound and effective business strategy, in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of INT and to meet mission-critical needs.

In this regard, INT is seeking a seasoned professional, with a strong understanding in Bank Group operations and organizational structure, to support the Vice President in managing day-to-day Front Office operations.

Duties and Accountabilities

The Special Assistant works closely with and is directly supervised by INT’s Vice President.  It is the duty of the Special Assistant to coordinate, perform, and/or follow-up on day-to-day project-specific tasks and requests for information, which the Vice President requires in order to respond to time-sensitive and often inherently unpredictable requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

•  Executive management of the administration of the office of the VP;
•  Manage interactions with senior Bank Group management and the President’s office;
•  Serve as the administrative focal point for the Independent Advisory Board;
•  Administer arrangements/logistics for all outreach initiatives, both internal and  external to the Bank Group;
•  Coordinate event management in the VPU;
•  Prepare formal presentations; coordinate and review formal presentations prepared by other business units within the VPU;
•  Handle all administrative aspects of the INT Annual Report (e.g., from planning to tasking, setting and monitoring milestones, reviewing drafts, proofing final deliverable, to publication and distribution); 
•  Assist Senior Management Team in developing and managing a VPU Implementation Plan (i.e., Action Plan for implementing the Annual Business Plan deriving from INT’s Strategy Document); 
•  On behalf of the Vice President INT, coordinate with VPU unit managers and/or handle any action items (e.g., preparation of Information Papers, Briefs, etc.) that may arise from the daily Vice President’s meetings, so that the Vice President may respond to these actions in a timely and efficient manner.  This may necessitate contacting individual VPU’s for information as well as gaining input from individual units within INT;
•  Assisting in the writing of papers on behalf of the Vice President, ensuring the relevant INT Manager is aware of the subject matter and specific input is gained from the individual units within INT;
•  Prepare or arrange (PowerPoint) presentations on behalf of the Vice President for delivery to relevant units within the Bank Group.  Presentations completed by others in INT for delivery by the Vice President will be checked and approved for consistency by the Staff Officer;
•  Act, on the Vice President’s behalf, as interlocutor with the Management Team to ensure continuity in respect of day to day running of the VPU, reporting issues back as and when necessary. This role will complement the direct reporting line of the Management Team to the Vice President; 
•  Provide administrative support to the Vice President and his Management Team in aligning the VPU’s strategic focus with that of the World Bank Group as a whole;
•  Coordinate the activities of the Vice President’s Front Office, ensuring that the Senior Executive Assistant and other front office staff maintain precise records and accountability of all matters relating to the Vice Presidents activities; and
•  On a monthly basis arrange and coordinate the VPU staff meetings, and where appropriate convene extraordinary meetings when specific information needs to be imparted to INT staff.  The Vice President or his designee will normally chair these meetings.

Selection Criteria

•  Advanced university degree in a relevant field plus a minimum of 8 years relevant experience, preferably in support of an executive office environment; 
•  Strong understanding of Bank Group or corporate-type operations, organizational structure and relationships;
•  Good understanding of transactional and investigative climate;
•  Broad and current understanding of the modus operandi of corrupt entities in a development context and of procurement, investment and development aid-related fraud, corruption, collusion and coercion;
•  Practical experience in distilling lessons from operational experiences;
•  Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver high-level presentations;
•  Proven ability to communicate with operational staff as well as to develop and implement innovative and results-oriented workshops as requested by the Vice President INT;
•  Excellent presentation skills, both verbal and written;
•  Complete fluency in verbal and written English;
•  Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to work effectively in a team/task force, as a team leader and with senior officials internally and externally;
•  Demonstrated sensitivity to the Bank Group’s distinctive demographics and cross cultural context and influences, and ability to build effective work relationships with clients and colleagues;
•  Good conceptual, analytical and evaluation skills, and the ability to coordinate and/or conduct comprehensive research on a range of issues, including those of a unique and complex nature; and
•  Established reputation for integrity, sound judgment, impeccable fairness and discretion in dealing internally and externally. Short listed candidates will be asked to supply references and to provide waivers to enable background checks to be conducted.

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