Illicit Finance Governance Adviser

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 30th September 2024

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Details

Reference number

364238

Salary

£53,000

Total Package is dependent upon location as follows: £58,000 (London) or £53,000 (East Kilbride).

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Grade 7

Contract type

Permanent

Type of role

Other

Working pattern

Full-time

Location

East Kilbride, London

About the job

Job summary

We lead the UK’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world. We employ around 17,000 staff in our global network of 281 offices worldwide.

Our UK-based staff work in King Charles Street in London, Abercrombie House in East Kilbride and in Milton Keynes.

Job description

Main Purpose of Job

We are looking for someone with strong research, analysis, political economy and international development skills to help establish and advance the UK’s International Centre of Expertise on Illicit Finance (ICE), a critical part of delivering the Government’s agenda within FCDO’s Illicit Finance and Anti-Corruption Department.

Our role is to drive UK leadership in international efforts to combat illicit finance and transnational corruption. Illicit finance and corruption damage developing countries by curtailing their ability to finance their own development and undermines open societies by bankrolling authoritarian regimes. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine emphasised, illicit finance directly undermines UK security interests by facilitating malign state activity and economic coercion. Vulnerabilities in the global financial system enable sanctions evasion, organised crime and terrorist financing and by engendering risk and uncertainty for businesses, damage economic growth and investment.

This is an exciting opportunity to become one of HMG’s leading experts on international illicit finance, and to support HMG to take a political economy and systems approach to countering this complex and evolving threat to the UK and our partners.

Roles and Responsibilities

The successful candidate will:

Enable HMG to use our diplomatic, policy and programmatic levers more strategically to target international illicit finance and pursue politically viable strategies to achieve systemic change and avoid unintended consequences.
Pilot approaches to diagnose, scope, design and deliver politically informed illicit finance responses as part of ICE’s inception phase. This will involve taking the FCDO overseas network, policy teams and local partners through context-specific political economy processes to identify pathways for change and intervention strategies, linking analysis with the practical ‘so what’. Where appropriate, you will draw in and direct support from geographic and sectoral specialists.
Lead and support research and analysis of evolving global illicit finance trends and vulnerabilities, using a political economy lens and identifying links and opportunities between cross-cutting UK interests on illicit finance (Development, National Security, Growth and Prosperity). This will involve establishing and testing a system and methodology for undertaking policy-focused analysis to support ICE’s inception phase, collaborating with ICE Analysts, wider HMG and operational partners and cross-sector experts.
Promote UK thought leadership by identifying and addressing strategic gaps in the international community’s understanding and response; and influencing others to go beyond technocratic/technical assistance approaches.
Establish influential relationships with other donors and multilateral organisations to share learning and knowledge on politically informed responses to illicit finance. Through these networks, act as a bridge between FCDO and experts outside to exchange insights and inform or challenge HMG.
Communicate findings, recommendations and advice through timely, clear and informed political economy analysis, scoping papers and research reports, oral presentations, and briefings for internal and external stakeholders. Respond to ad hoc requests for advice.
Provide ongoing technical governance and political economy guidance to enhance ICE’s offer. Design and test ICE’s political economy quality assurance function.
Work with others to ensure regular reporting to ICE governance on milestones, while gathering data and feeding learning to ICE’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Adviser.

There will be occasional overseas travel to support scoping, research and stakeholder engagement, including attendance at conferences (estimated to be three to five days, up to three times a year, subject to business needs).

Person specification

It is essential in your application that you provide evidence and proven examples in each of the following Minimum Criteria, the Behaviours and the Technical question as far as you are able to do so. These responses will be further developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview.

Minimum Criteria

Proven experience undertaking political economy analysis including designing and/or leading analysis, and using the analysis to inform a strategy, programme or approach. This should include understanding the interests of relevant actors and identifying politically viable opportunities for change or reform.
Expertise in illicit finance and/or anti-corruption, with a willingness to deepen your expertise further on the aspects of illicit finance most relevant to UK interests (e.g. gold, professional enablers, beneficial ownership transparency, asset return, anti-corruption).
Proven experience researching, scoping and designing strategies, interventions or Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes internationally on complex reform issues like governance or illicit finance. This experience could include working in an international organisation, government department, or research institution.
Proven research and analysis skills including the ability to identify and solve problems by independently sourcing and evaluating large volumes of information and applying sound judgement and strategic thinking to provide well-evidenced conclusions and practical recommendations.
Excellent written and oral communication skills with an ability to express complex ideas clearly, concisely and persuasively to a wide range of stakeholders with different levels of understanding.
Excellent stakeholder management and professional networking skills. This includes collaborating with colleagues with overlapping interests and developing and maintaining relationships with other donors, civil society, academia and multilateral organisations working on illicit finance e.g. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Bank and the German development organization (GIZ).

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Working Together
Seeing the Big Picture

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Anti-corruption and Illicit Finance - Expert
Applied Governance and Political Economy Analysis - Expert
Public Financial Management and Domestic Revenue Mobilisation - Expert
Security, Justice and Human Rights – Expert
Candidates will be required to give a Technical Presentation on Anti-Corruption and Illicit Finance at the Interview, and the topic will be sent to you in advance.
Candidates will be asked Motivation questions at interview.

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:

Anti-corruption and Illicit Finance - Expert
Applied Governance and Political Economy Analysis - Expert
Public Financial Management and Domestic Revenue Mobilisation - Expert

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,000, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office contributes £15,354 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

· A Civil Service Pension.
· 25 days Annual Leave per annum.
· 9 days Public and Privilege holidays per annum.
· Learning and Development tailored to your role.

See the attached candidate pack.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please see the attached candidate pack for the selection process details.

An initial sift will be conducted using the behaviour Working Together, CV and Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift of their application form.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to FCDO from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences. If there is any evidence of plagiarism, including presenting the ideas and experience of others as your own, your application will be withdrawn.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service or Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : FCDO Recruitment Team
Email : fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

The FCDO’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should, in the first instance, contact External.Recruitment@fcdo.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the FCDO, you can contact the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners.