Merle Frankfort
Accountant
Pretoria,Gauteng
Summary
Experienced accounting professional with over 15 years of expertise in maintaining financial records and reviewing account activity. Demonstrated ability to develop accurate spreadsheets and deliver organized reports using SAP, Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Skilled in handling tasks within strict deadlines while effectively prioritizing urgent needs. Seasoned accounting support professional with a proven track record in managing both routine and complex business accounting requirements. Well-versed in public and private sector standards, state requirements, and federal regulations. Proficient in GRAP and IFRS with extensive experience in general ledger management.
Equipped with strong problem-solving abilities, willingness to learn, and excellent communication skills. Poised to contribute to team success and achieve positive results. Ready to tackle new challenges and advance organizational objectives with dedication and enthusiasm.
Demonstrates strong analytical, communication, and teamwork skills, with proven ability to quickly adapt to new environments. Eager to contribute to team success and further develop professional skills. Brings positive attitude and commitment to continuous learning and growth.
Overview
2025
2025
years of professional experience
23
23
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Language
Work History
Director
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
Pretoria
4 2018 - Current
- Of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Position, Financial Management
- Directorate: Financial Management
- Responsibilities, To provide support and guidance to Programme Managers budget planning, compilation, execution, monitoring and reporting on programmes budget for decision making
- Facilitate the preparation and submission of statutory reports to improve accountability and maintain compliance with relevant prescripts programmes budget for decision making
- Oversee the budget preparation process, provide advice and support to stakeholders, and review the budget proposal prior to submission to the relevant authority
- Provide guidance and assistance with the budget monitoring process, including the production of monthly and quarterly financial and performance reports, and provide recommendations and advice to address significant variances
- To ensure that the necessary systems, processes and procedures are in place to assist branch heads with their contributions to the budget compilation process
- Manage Cash Flow projections for all programs
- Manage the Debt Management process
- Manage process of the preparation of Interim and Annual Financial statements
- Incorporate Financial Information into the Annual Report
- Facilitate the preparation and submission of statutory reports to improve accountability and maintain compliance with PFMA, National Treasury Regulations and prescripts (In Year Monitoring, Annual Financial reports)
- Monitor and Review compliance reports in relation with the Treasury guidelines and timelines
- Review and Development of policies and procedures in accordance to the relevant prescripts
- Develop Standard Operating procedures for functions within Financial and Management accounting unit
- Develop Operational Plans, Management the Operational Risk Register
- Facilitate the reconciliation of general ledger towards a zero balance on the suspense accounts and ensure compliance to National Treasury Regulations
- Ensure Organizational compliance to National Treasury prescripts, policies, delegations and reporting requirements based on legislative documents (PFMA)
- Contribution to strategic management and governance processes
- Conduct Strategic Risk Assessment
- Liaise the with Internal and External Auditors
- Implement Audit Improvement plans and monitor the progress
- Manage the performance of staff in the Financial Management unit the day- to- day activities of a staff compliment of 20
- Achievements
- Maintain clean audit for the preparation for the financial statement from 2018/19 to 2022/23
- Period
- Improved project efficiency with strategic planning, resource allocation, and time management practices.
- Enhanced team collaboration through regular communication, goal setting, and performance evaluations.
- Managed budgets effectively to ensure optimal use of resources while maintaining financial stability.
- Established a culture of continuous improvement by fostering open communication channels and empowering employees to voice their ideas.
- Proactively identified potential risks and implemented mitigation strategies to minimize negative impacts on projects or business operations.
- Evaluated employee performance objectively using established metrics, leading to fair compensation adjustments based on meritocracy principles.
- Reduced operational risks while organizing data to forecast performance trends which resulted in maintaining clean audit for more than 10 years
Acting Chief Financial Officer
Organisation Department of Planning
Pretoria
05.2022 - 06.2022
- Monitoring and Evaluation, respond to changing needs for financial information
- Ensure Procurement processes complies with PFMA and National Treasury Prescripts
- Advice contribute to the financial aspects of the strategic planning process
- Ensure that internal financial targets budgets are fully consistent with the strategic plan and relevant agreements with government
- Manage working capital, assets and liabilities
- Manage the accounting and finance staff of 32
- Expenditure management
- Meet reporting requirements as required in terms of financial management legislation such as PFMA, Treasury Regulations
- Maintain systems of internal control
- Directed budget development, budgetary controls and recordkeeping to make informed financial decisions.
- Oversaw budgets, payroll, and accounts payable and receivable.
- Tracked cash flow and financial planning to analyze company's financial strengths and weaknesses and propose strategic directions.
- Oversaw accounts payable and receivable to track income and expenditures, drive statutory compliance and provide quantitative financial information.
- Ensured accurate financial reporting, maintaining compliance with GRAP, National Treasury regulations,PFMA and internal policies.
- Collaborated with executive leadership to establish budgetary guidelines and allocate resources efficiently across the organization.
- Prepared accurate financial statements at end of quarter to summarize financial health and financial performance.
- Fostered a culture of continuous improvement within the finance team, encouraging professional development opportunities for staff members.
- Established and maintained strong relationships with internal & external stakeholders nd strategic partners.
- Communicated business performance, forecasts and strategies to Executive Management
- Monitored Strategic and Operational risks and established risk management procedures.
Deputy Director
Department of Water and Sanitation
Pretoria
02.2011 - 03.2018
- Budget Control
- Directorate: Budget Control
- Responsibilities
- Provide guidance to Senior Programme managers and Deputy Director Generals with preparation of annual budgets which are aligned to their Strategic Objectives and Business plans over the Medium Term
- Calculate the costing Compensation of Employees as per Department of Public Service administration policies, Operational Expenditure and Key Output Activity for the Medium budget as per the guidelines of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)and give guidance to Senior Managers to ensure compliance with National Treasury Guidelines and Staff requirement of the Programme
- Coordinate inputs and provide guidance on preparation of historic and future performance information for Estimated National Expenditure (ENE)
- Provide technical assistance in the calculation of the overall budget requirements i.e
- Calculation of required of Operational Costs, Procurement of Capital Asset and Costing of Key Activities within Business Plan which complies with National Treasury Guidelines and Public Finance Management Act(PFMA)
- Ensure the Demand Plans at beginning of financial year are line with the Approved Budget
- Prepare Analysis of Expenditure Report each month for In Year Monitoring as prescribed by PFMA
- Prepare Cash flow projections monthly as prescribed by PFMA and National Treasury Guidelines
- Assist role players with use of forecasting methods and tools
- Monitor and evaluate actual expenditure against the allocation budget
- Analyse variances in spending versus budget allocation
- Engage with stakeholders to obtain performance information and report on reasons for variances and identify course of action to prevent overspending/under spending
- Provide financial reports information on actually spending on weekly intervals to give stake holders in indication on the progress on spending on more regular intervals
- Ensure all budget and management accounting activities are line with prescripts of PFMA and National Treasury Guidelines
- Give guidance in the planning ,preparation and consultation process in the implementation of the adjustments estimates process
- Ensure the Adjusted ENE is captured correctly and in line with the Vote
- Ensure that budget is captured as per the Vote monitor that all shifts/virements are included in the In-Year Monitoring reporting
- Facilitate the identification of shifting of funds or virements between programs and economic classification to address projected over and under spending
- Assess where shifting of funds/virements is required and possible by reviewing expenditure against budget
- Provide information for the preparation of the annual financial statements
- Analyze requests for rollovers in compliance with prescripts manage the rollover process of unspent funds
- Review the under spending for the financial year to identify funds to be rolled over (including funds committed but not spent)
- Monitor and identify all approved rollovers and ensure they are included in the Adjustment Estimates
- Identify misallocation of actual expenditure and budget allocations and Standard Chart of Accounts(SCOA)
- Monitor the Commitments(Purchase Orders) created and identify Purchase order not cleared and paid
- Prepare Age Analysis on Detailed Commitment Report to identify Order older than 3 months and verify on monthly basis with Supply Chain Management reason for delays in service delivery and paid to service provider
- Provide information and guidance general queries on financial policies and process of the Department and National Treasury Guideline
- Prepared Financial Policies and Procedures for the Secretariat of the African Minister Council of Water(Body of African Union) using International standards(IIA & IFRS) and National Treasury Guidelines as bench mark tool
- Designed proposed action plan for the design and implementation for these policies and process for African Minister's Council On Water(AMCOW) financial systems
- Monitor Expenditure on Donor funded Projects
- Prepare VAT claims to SARS for payments made to Services providers of Donor funded projects
- Provide advice and guide to Project Manager on Donor Funded Projects as per the National Treasury Framework for Official Development Assistance on Financial Management
- Supervise and guide one State accountant and provide on the job training
- Delegate functions to Junior official to transfer of skills and knowledge
- Achievements
- Draft Financial Regulations for the Secretariat of African Minister Council of Water and accepted 2018.
Assistant Director
Gauteng Provincial Treasury
Johannesburg
03.2008 - 01.2011
- Component Office of the Chief Financial Officer (Financial Accounting)
- Responsibilities
- Expenditure Analysis-aim of Rectifying misallocations ,Prepare Journal Petty Cash Re-imbursement verification
- Cell phone expenditure Analysis to identify over- expenditure on cell phone usage of official issued the departmental cell phones
- Monitor spending on departmental cell phone to ensure adherence to cell phone policy
- Issue to official debt acknowledgement letters for over-expenditure on cell phones in terms of Departments cell phone policy
- Prepare request for cell phones in terms of Departmental policy
- Prepare detailed expenditure report for the Trading Entity
- Prepare and submit Inter-Departmental Claims and follow up on payments and receipts due for payments and queries relating to these claims
- Monitor Bank balance to ensure the funds requested equals actual expenditure and that bank balance is zero or equal revenue
- Prepare analysis of transactions in the Paymaster account for Provincial Banking services
- Request funds for expenditures from Provincial PMG in order meet financial obligations on weekly basis
- Prepare analysis of Interest Revenue
- Prepared Systems processes for all financial accounting activities (Bank reconciliations, Petty Cash, Funds Requests)
- Compiled the balance confirmation for funds requested each month
- Compile and Review BAS/PERSAL reconciliation (Salary reconciliation)
- Compiled the Bank Reconciliation
- Monitor and Review Suspense Accounts-ensure zero balance is maintained or cleared before financial year end
- Prepare reports on Consultants Fees which reflects all payments made to consultants and compile a file with all source documents
- Verify and check claims, sundry payments
- Prepare weekly reports for the achievements for units in terms of the Annual Performance Plan of the department
- Review, Monitor and Prepare Petty Cash Replenishment
- Review Sundry payments before approval in terms of Departmental policies
- Approve Invoices, claims and reimbursements to officials payment on SAP FI web-cycle that is not purchase order based
- In the absence of the Deputy Director act in her capacity from time to time
- Assist with provide Auditor General with requests for Information Audit Information at Financial year end
- Follow up on audit queries and ensured implementation of recommendation made by Auditor General in respect of audit findings
- Assist in Preparation on Annual Financial Statements(AFS)
- Assist with preparation of notes to AFS(examples: Compile the note for Consultancy Fees and supporting documentation for the transactions)
- Assist with preparation of Oversight report for Annual Financial Statements
- Provide information required for the PFMA Compliance Report
- Manage four financial officers in the team
- Monitor and manage the performance of each team member in terms of their Annual Performance Contracts
- Assist other programmes in the department with requests for financial information
- Review and Monitor the Suspense accounts and ensure that amounts are cleared on monthly basis
- Supervise and manage performance of four officials.
- Developed and maintained strong relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives.
- Increased operational efficiency, reviewing and optimizing departmental workflows.
Education
High School Diploma -
Klein Nederburg Senior Secondary
Paarl, South Africa 01.1988 - 12.1988
National Diploma - Internal Auditing
Cape Town University of Technology
Cape Town, South Africa 02.1988 - 03.1993
Bachelor of Science - Management Accounting
UNISA
Pretoria 02.1998 - 09.2014
Skills
Teamwork and collaboration
Financial assessment
Year-end and month- end closing
Financial statement preparation
Profit and loss analysis
Expense account management
Budgetary governance
Balance sheet reconciliation
Regulatory compliance
Budgets and forecasting
Internal controls implementation
Accounts payable and receivable
Staff management
Verbal and written communicationn
GAAP, IFRS and GRAP
MS office
Microsoft Excel expertise
Strategic planning
Cash flow analysis
Auditing procedures
Data analysis
Budget forecasting
GL accuracy
Payment tracking systems
Reports reconciliation
Account reconciliation
File and database management
Customer service
Month-end reports
General ledger maintenance
Audit tracking
Credit control
Fixed asset management
Cash flow management
Accounts receivable management
Tax compliance
Cost accounting
Budget preparation
Variance analysis
Expense tracking
Financial forecasting
Business forecasting
Financial management
Operational decision making
Financial administration
Audit coordination
Strategic financial planning
Risk management
Financial process improvement
Accounting principles understanding
ERP system implementation
Financial policy creation
Financial strategy development
Fiscal management
Regulatory requirements
Othertrainingandshortcourses
- NATIONAL TREASURY OF SOUTH AFRICA, Essentials of Budget Formulation, 04/01/10 to 07/31/10
- NATIONAL TREASURY OF SOUTH AFRICA, BAS – General Ledger System, General Principles, 06/01/09
- PALAMA, Anti-Corruption and Ethics Management, 10/13/09 to 10/16/09
- UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA, Advance Management Development Programme, 10/01/08 to 02/28/09
- UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA, Outcomes Based Monitoring and Evaluation, 11/01/14
Softwarepackages
- ACCPAC (accounting application)
- Integrity – contracts 2000 (accounting package)
- SAP 4.0B – Financial Accounting & purchase order module
- Lotus 1.2.3 – Spreadsheets (windows)
- AmiPro – Memo's and Letters
- Microsoft Word
- Accpac – Accounting applications
- Microsoft Excel
- PeopleSoft ERP System
- DRS – container tracking system
- OCS – Operational Cost Service
- Solomon ERP system
- FRX (Financial Reporting system)
- BAS – (Reporting), Payment Inquiry, Disbursement reports
- SAP R3- E-Invoicing authorisation
Firstnames
Merle Melony
Contactnumbers
012 312 0421, 083 608 9036
References
- Ms Mbali Mfeka, Financial Manager: NECSA, 012 305 4911, 082 801 2769
- Mr Clifford Appel, Former Chief Financial Officer, Gauteng Treasury, 082 447 6744, barloo@live.com
- Ms Lindiwe Lusenga, Deputy Director- General: International Water Support, Department of Water Affairs, 082 658 9265
- Dr Annette Griessel, Deputy Director- General: National Planning Coordination, Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, 082 658 9265
Personal Information
- Available: one-month notice
- Date of Birth: 10/13/70
- Nationality: South African
Accomplishments
Developed Financial Policies and Regulations for the Secretariat for the African Minister's Council of Water in 2012 that was adopted in 2018
Maintained Clean Audit for 11 years for Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation after joining in 2018
Timeline
Acting Chief Financial Officer
Organisation Department of Planning
05.2022 - 06.2022
Deputy Director
Department of Water and Sanitation
02.2011 - 03.2018
Assistant Director
Gauteng Provincial Treasury
03.2008 - 01.2011
Bachelor of Science - Management Accounting
UNISA
02.1998 - 09.2014
National Diploma - Internal Auditing
Cape Town University of Technology
02.1988 - 03.1993
High School Diploma -
Klein Nederburg Senior Secondary
01.1988 - 12.1988
Director
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
4 2018 - Current