18503. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This paper is concerned with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its intended purpose of improving corporate ethics. Although some improvements have been made in this area, the Act is flawed because of the costs of compliance, the complexity of its rules, its lack of incentives, and its neglect in providing protection to whistleblowers. It is argued that the Act is having a negative impact on U.S. economic competitiveness and therefore certain changes are needed to increase its effectiveness in the future. KEYWORDS: business ethics Sarbanes-Oxley accounting practices scandals whistleblowers. APA Style. 9 pages, 22 footnotes, 7 bibliographic sources. 2,266 words.