diff --git a/examples/pytorch/question-answering/sparseml_utils.py b/examples/pytorch/question-answering/sparseml_utils.py
index eb32511d85f8..c9086a6c7f01 100644
--- a/examples/pytorch/question-answering/sparseml_utils.py
+++ b/examples/pytorch/question-answering/sparseml_utils.py
@@ -241,6 +241,8 @@ def preprocess_state_dict(pretrained_model_name_or_path):
                 manager = ScheduledModifierManager.from_yaml(recipe)
                 modifiers = [m.__class__.__name__ for m in manager.modifiers]
                 is_qat_recipe = "QuantizationModifier" in modifiers
+            else:
+                is_qat_recipe = False
             if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(pretrained_model_name_or_path, WEIGHTS_NAME)):
                 archive_file = os.path.join(pretrained_model_name_or_path, WEIGHTS_NAME)
                 state_dict = torch.load(archive_file, map_location="cpu")