The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at WAPA is responsible for guiding the organization’s financial strategy and ensuring sound financial practices. Key duties include:

• Financial Planning: Developing and implementing long-term financial strategies that align with WAPA's goals.
• Accounting Oversight: Managing accounting practices to ensure accuracy, compliance, and transparency in financial reporting.
• Relationship Management: Building and maintaining relationships with lending institutions, shareholders, and the broader financial community.
• Budgeting and Forecasting: Overseeing the budgeting process and financial forecasting to guide organizational decision-making.
• Risk Management: Identifying and managing financial risks to protect WAPA’s assets and ensure sustainability.

Education and Experience: Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Master’s Degree in business administration and eight (8) to ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in finance and accounting work, five (5) of which must have involved utility finance and accounting, of which three (3) years must have been in a responsible administrative capacity. Must be a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA); preferably a CPA.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Directs the Comptroller in providing procedures and systems necessary to maintain proper records and afford adequate accounting controls and services.
• Appraises the organization's financial position and issues periodic financial and operating reports.
• Presents financial and budgetary reports to the Executive Director and Governing Board as necessary.
• Directs and coordinates the establishment of budget programs.
• Analyzes, consolidates, and directs all cost accounting procedures together with other statistical and routine reports.
• Directs and analyzes studies of general economic, business, and financial conditions and their impact on the organization's policies and operations.
• Represents the Authority in transactions with the trustees, fiscal agents, and others in negotiating bond financing including preparation of supporting financial statements.
• Determines how much money the Authority should have in demand accounts and invests money to obtain the best return for the Authority.
• Makes financial and budgetary reports to the Executive Director and Governing Board as necessary.
• Serves as Acting Executive Director as designated.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Thorough knowledge of financial management and economic principles, practices, and procedures and their application to the Authority’s financial and economic problems.
• Considerable knowledge of budgeting and accounting principles and practices. especially as they relate to utility activities.
• Knowledge of the principles of supervision and modern business administration.
• Ability to apply research methods and techniques to complex problems of public finance.
• Ability to plan, outline, and review the work of professional and administrative personnel engaged in financial and administrative activities.
• Ability to present problems or results of studies and investigations effectively in written, oral, or graphic form.
• Ability to supervise and evaluate the activities of professional and technical problems.

About Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority

The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) is an autonomous agency of the Virgin Islands Government which uniquely provides reliable, affordable, and diversified utility services through knowledgeable and committed personnel and environmentally friendly technologies. WAPA was created by the Fifth Legislature of the Virgin Islands in 1964 through Act No. 1248. The enabling legislation has been amended to add the responsibility of installing and maintaining street lights to the utility’s mission. In later years, the responsibility for the production and distribution of drinking water was also added. Today, WAPA produces electrical power at plants on St. Thomas and St. Croix and distributes electrical service through smart grids to customers on St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, Hassel Island, and Water Island.

Connections working at Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority