Investigative and Forensic Accounting Program Trains Sleuths to Track Down the Bad Guys

TORONTO, August 20, 2002 -- In a global business environment becoming more complex every day, smart, well-trained financial sleuths are needed to track down the bad guys who use that complexity to cover their tracks.

That's why four years ago the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) established the Alliance for Excellence in Investigative and Forensic Accounting (IFA Alliance), to formalize a process that would train and recognize qualified chartered accountants with the specialist designation "CA·IFA." Key to the process of becoming a CA·IFA is a new, specially-designed two-year, part-time graduate program, the Diploma in Investigative and Forensic Accounting (DIFA), delivered by the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and the École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Montreal, in conjunction with the IFA Alliance.

The first cohort of 44 students began the program in 2001. A dinner event will be held on August 21 at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus to allow current students to celebrate the halfway point in their studies and welcome the second class of 32 new investigative and forensic accounting hopefuls, who begin their first residency period this week.

"Judging by the numbers of applicants alone, some of whom come from countries half a world away, I believe investigative and forensic accounting is a major growth area, globally," said Prof. Len Brooks, director of the DIFA program at the Rotman School of Management. "A strong selling point of the DIFA is the quality of the education we deliver -- our diploma program is designed to be one of the most rigorous of its kind in the world."

Statistics on fraud - just one area that student CA·IFAs are trained to detect and uncover - are staggering: one in five Canadians say they have personally witnessed someone defraud their employers within the previous twelve months. It has been estimated that fraud robs organizations of 20 cents of every dollar raised.

It's one reason why more than 200 CAs have chosen to earn their CA·IFA designation.

"The DIFA program and CA·IFA designation offer exciting career opportunities for CAs," said David Smith, president and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. "Our profession is already well-known for ethics, objectivity, independence, integrity, and strong education and training in all aspects of business. This combination make CAs particularly well-suited to this specialization."

The DIFA is the educational pre-requisite to becoming a CA·IFA. The certification program contains both practical and educational requirements. Applicants for the CA·IFA must have at least three years experience as chartered accountants and 1,500 hours or more of investigative and forensic accounting casework. After receiving their specialist designation, CA·IFAs must meet ongoing annual requirements to stay current.

"The CA·IFA designation informs lawyers, law enforcement professionals, the courts, those in government and in business that the holder brings thousands of hours of experience, graduate-level education, and ongoing training to the job of uncovering, investigating and analyzing financial evidence and fraud, testifying as an expert witness, risk management and fraud prevention, damages quantification, litigation support and dispute resolution," said Nick Hodson, CA·IFA with Ernst & Young LLP and chair of the Board of the IFA Alliance. "With its combination of ethics, education, evaluation and experience, there is no forensic accounting program like this anywhere in the world."

  
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For more information or to arrange an interview with Alan Webber: 

Ken McGuffin  
Media Relations Officer  
Rotman School of Management 
Voice:  (416) 946-3818  
Fax:   (416) 978-1373 
E-mail:  mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca  

Greer Hozack, MBA’99 
Co-chair Unilever Speaker Series 
Rotman School of Management 
Voice: (416) 538-3886 
E-mail: Greer_Hozack@embanet.com