Download the file and you'll find some good news and bad news in the latest KPMG forensic Integrity Survey. There's been no real decrease in the amount of unethical activity going on inside companies, with 74 per cent of employees reporting misconduct, compared with 76 per cent five years ago. Level pegging too for levels of serious misconduct, now tracking at 50 per cent, compared with 49 percent in 2000. Bad behavior apparently varies from sector to sector. According to this study, it's rife in the public sector. But go figure, it's not as prevalent in banking & finance and insurance and the cleanest are in real estate.

So what's the good news? Employees now report that there's less pressure to cut corners and engage in misconduct.

Or is that a case of spin? Take for instance the New York Times report that business has a trust problem and it's getting worse. It quotes polls showing that from July 28 to August 10, 72 per cent of respondents said industry was full of rampant wrongdoing, up on 66 per cent last year.

Mind you, business has not been helping itself with concern growing about some of the payouts and in many cases, the lack of transparency . Now there are moves by the SEC to draft new disclosures on pay with revelations that CEO compensation at 2000 of the largest U.S. companies increased 30 percent in fiscal 2004, up from 15 percent in 2003 and 9.5 percent in 2002.

Sounds like business has its work cut out. As Office Depot boss Steve Odland put it : ''Once you've violated the public trust, it takes awhile to get it back. We have a public relations job to do. We do have to mend some fences."

So is the push for business ethics real, or is it as cynical an MBA Business School exercise as President Bush sending his staff to ethics school? (I mean, who are the teachers? Dick Cheney? Karl Rove? And what are the ethics of torture?).

Hopefully, corporations will take it more seriously. They need to.