Forensics course breaks new ground:
"[...]'The whole intent of the program was to obviously improve standards and skill levels in this particular branch of accounting,' said Gary Moulton, partner in forensic services at Deloitte and Touche and member of the CICA's alliance for excellence in investigative and forensic accounting. 'When I got into this 20 years ago, because it was so new, there weren't any courses. As time went on, we saw a need developing,'

When it comes to forensic accounting, learning on the job just isn't good enough anymore, adds Len Brooks, director of the DIFA program at Rotman.

'It's a program which is much needed because organized and unorganized white collar crime is really a growth phenomenon. The minds at work on the other side are quite clever,' Brooks said.

'The issue is that it takes a long time to learn because your experience isn't sequential, it isn't organized. You don't have access to experts. You're learning from your own mistakes in many cases.'

Nor is the standard chartered accounting training good enough.

'When you go to the forensic and investigative accounting field, you've got to have an extra dimension of professional skepticism. Instead of a watchdog, you've got to be a bloodhound. You've got to be more alert to the possibilities for fraud, for misconduct,' Brooks said."