Five years after Sarbanes-Oxley was signed into law to clean up corporate America's ethics , and we have some disturbing finds from the Ethics Resource Center.

An Ethics Resource Center study, reported here, reveals that nearly 70 per cent of employees at publicly traded U.S. companies give their employers an "A" or "B" grade for encouraging ethical conduct. Trouble is that means nearly a third don't think their employers are that squeaky clean.

The problem seems to be particularly severe in smaller companies. All up, more than one in five (22 percent) said results were rewarded even when that meant unethical practices. But this was particularly the case in smaller companies.

Asked "How often does your job conflict with your personal values?", 20 per cent answered in the affirmative. Again, this was more the case at smaller companies.

When he signed Sarbanes-Oxley into law five years ago, President Bush said:

"There will not be a different ethical standard for corporate America than the standard that applies to everyone else. The honesty you expect in your small businesses, or in your workplaces, in your community or in your home, will be expected and enforced in every corporate suite in this country."

Clearly, there is still some way to go. Indeed, nothing much seems to have changed.