Salman Ghandour

Provide strategic and operational leadership across finance, administration, legal, contracts, procurement, and human resources functions, overseeing systems, processes, and departmental staff. Direct the overall management of financial planning, procurement activities, and HR operations, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and regulatory requirements. Lead bid and tender submissions, including pricing strategy, contract review and execution, change order management, and oversight of legal issues. Drive process improvements and organizational efficiency initiatives, including successfully leading the rollout of a new ERP system. Review and approve all technical and financial proposals, ensuring competitiveness, accuracy, and alignment with business objectives.

Supported the financial leadership of CRS Sudan with a focus on grant management and partner compliance. Oversaw financial reporting, budgeting, and grant implementation to ensure alignment with donor regulations and CRS policies. Strengthening partner capacity through financial training, monitoring, and support. Ensured accurate expenditure tracking, timely donor reporting, and effective internal controls. Collaborated with program and operations teams to manage grant portfolios, assess partner financial systems, and mitigate financial risks. Assisted in audits, compliance reviews, and strategic financial planning to support program delivery and organizational accountability.

Oversee the financial, administrative, legal, procurement, and human resources systems and operations and supervise finance & administration departments’ staff.
Manage successful six financial annual audits for Minah and affiliated companies with zero discrepancy. Currently responsible for the strategic and operational direction of the Finance, Procurement and Human Resources Teams. Oversee the processes of bid submissions ensuring accurate and competitive pricing, reviewing & implementing contracts, manage changing orders, and legal matters. Led on the implementation of new HR system.

• Empower financial management policies and procedures, and enforce financial controls
• Build accounting and financial systems and training staff and build and up their accounting and financial capacities. This included setting up and implementation of accounting software package (QuickBooks), rebuild the chart of accounts, and prepare a proper documentation.
• Restructuring one of the subsidiaries by building an accounting system, posting all financial and accounting information for the last three years, and produce three end of year financial reports (trial balance, income statements, and balance sheets).
• Provide annual and periodic budgeting of events, activities, investment activities, and working capital.

Targets & Objectives:
• Develop an ongoing positive partnership between Project Managers and Finance.
• Ensure monthly accounts returns to UK on schedule with a good commentary and forecast. In addition address the review points highlighted by the UK team.
• Deliver donors financial reports on time and with all necessary donor requirements met including explanations on areas require so, funding requests, etc.
• Manage cash flow in a way that ensures availability of cash always for working capital and project activity purposes.
• Deliver organization business plans budgets and finance, admin, IT, and HR units business plans.
• Provide budgeting support to all proposals in the development process and maximizing overhead recovery in proposals.
• Monthly monitoring of implementation of projects, advising team leaders and project managers on areas of over/under spending and the possible course of action that needed to be taken.
• Analyze trends and norms during project implementation, and share knowledge and lessons with team leaders, fundraisers, and project manager for possible future projects.
• Develop systems by which field and HQ accountants understand and properly play their roles in terms of financial controls and processing.
• Restructure the finance, admin and Info-Tech unit and obtain SMT approval for it.
• Undertake annual appraisals for your directly managed staff and provide input into field accountants’ appraisals.
• Present a financial overview to the SMT on monthly basis and to the PMT on quarterly basis.
• Build the technical capacities of accountants by training them on Sun and Vision and training of budget holders on budgeting and budgets management.
• Supervise admin, procurement, IT, and HR units’ functions and resource allocation within Practical Action Sudan.

Providing advise and assistance to companies to build up their accounting and financial systems and training their staff and build up their capacities. This includes the following duties:
• Assist in the setting up and implementation of accounting software packages such as Peachtree and QuickBooks.
• Setting up charts of accounts to new companies and help existing companies to rebuild their chart of accounts.
• Mapping of the old chart of accounts to the new chart of accounts in the case of the existing companies.
• Participate in the data migration.
• Setting up users’ access rights in the multiple users accounting software.
• Prepare of proper documentation of introduction of the accounting software systems.
• Prepare financial, account, and administrative manuals and procedures.
• Training the finance, accounting, and administration staff of the systems and software packages.

Job summary:

Oversee the financial, administrative and human resources systems and finance & administration departments staff, and implement established policies, procedures, and internal controls for the loan portfolio and operating accounts, and ensure that the established policies are in compliance with best industry practices.

Functional responsibilities & tasks

•Assure efficient implementation of the accounting system.
•Transparent documentation and monitoring of all financial processes according to IAS standards.
•Support financial audits.
•Coach and lead finance and administration staff and build up their capacity in administration, finance and accountancy.
•Guide the implementation of procedures and standards for financial management and accounting.
•Guide the implementation of procedures and standards for administrative and human resources management.
•Work out a Fiscal Accountability Plan and related documents.
•Assist other departments in all accounting, financial and budgetary matters as required.

Overall management and supervision of accounts in technical performance of their tasks and responsibilities. A major component of the management aspect is the identifying of procedural problem, analyses to discover remedial actions and the implementation of solutions, to include the review of Sub-Offices vouchers, supporting documentation and financial reports for completeness and accuracy, reconcile the Country Office (CO) sub-ledger and main office bank accounts, maintain the Account Receivable and Inventory Module.

Functional responsibilities & tasks
· Sub-Offices financial statements review and monitoring.
· Bank and sub-ledger reconciliation.
· Oversee and manage accounts receivables module.
· Oversee and manage Inventory module.
· Prepare specialized reports or analysis as may required by management.
· Respond to correspondence with Atlanta (CARE HQ), Donors, and other CARE International members on grants and contracts matters.
· Act as backup of Database administrator in absence of the later.

· Building and maintaining an accounting system.
· Treasury management, credit control and all banking coordination.
· Co-ordinate with the Auditors in the monthly and yearly audit process
Accounting:
· Responsibilities included: Budgeting, preparation of trial balance, profit/loss, cash flow management, bank reconciliation and balance sheets.
Finance:
· Responsibilities included: treasury management, credit control, accounts payable/receivable, Liaison/agreements with local commercial banks for bank facilities including Letter of Credits, Trust Receipts, Short-Term Loans, Import Loans, Bank Guarantees, Overdraft facilities, payroll control, inventory control such as stock movement, safety stock movement.
· In charge of all Financial Analyses concerning budgeting, forecasting, performance, credit control, corporate finance and investment appraisals.
· Negotiations with the main contractors for project commissioning
· Meeting the Company’s requirements for Insurance.

Sudanese Islamic Bank is one of the first Islamic banks in Sudan established in the early 1980s and start operating in 1983. The bank has a unique branch for rural development; the Rural development Brach, which provides microfinance, rural development financing, small farmers financing, productive families credit, etc.
My responsibilities included (in brief):
Rural Development Branch:
• Small scale project financing: small farmer, small scale producers, productive families, etc.
• Design and build microfinance packages that satisfy a certain need through Islamic financial instruments.
• Ensure all microfinance transactions are complying with Shariah.
• Implement and monitor microfinance projects through their life cycle and proceed with a proactive projects settlement.
Other responsibilities (other branched and HO):
• Supervised daily operation including L/Cs, FOREX, and Nostro accounts.
• Carried out special assignment such as the centralization of FOREX & L/C processing for all branches.
• Preparation and dissemination of Cash Flow. Reports on monthly, weekly and daily basis to the Corporate Treasury Department.

Worked in different branches namely:
• Rural Development branch as Rural Development Officer,
• Khartoum branch as Assistant section manager,
• Rural Development Branch as Rural Development manager and then section manager,
• Controller and section manager in Mougtaribeen branch,
• Section manager in Souk Arabi branch and finally
• Head-Office as Deputy Dept. Manager at the International Banking Division.