diff --git a/launcher_scripts/nemo_launcher/collections/eval_harness/lm_eval/models/nemo_gpt3.py b/launcher_scripts/nemo_launcher/collections/eval_harness/lm_eval/models/nemo_gpt3.py
index 645472171..efe9f651e 100755
--- a/launcher_scripts/nemo_launcher/collections/eval_harness/lm_eval/models/nemo_gpt3.py
+++ b/launcher_scripts/nemo_launcher/collections/eval_harness/lm_eval/models/nemo_gpt3.py
@@ -149,7 +149,10 @@ def setup_trainer_and_model(args):
             )
             if trainer.precision == "16":
                 pretrained_cfg.megatron_amp_O2 = False
-            if args.dist_ckpt_load_strictness is not None:
+            if (
+                args.dist_ckpt_load_strictness is not None
+                and args.dist_ckpt_load_strictness != "None"
+            ):
                 pretrained_cfg.dist_ckpt_load_strictness = (
                     args.dist_ckpt_load_strictness
                 )