The strategic financial governance concern of the IMF in releasing the COVID-19 financial relief to countries is that the fund must reach those who need it the most (IMF, 2020). This apprehension draws from the fact that "The scale of the crisis raises the risks and dangers of the theft of public money that should be used to save lives and rebuild livelihoods" (Transparency International, 2020). Given the huge sums of funds involved with the COVID-19 crisis and lives at stake, the IMF is ensuring that relief funds do not get lost to public financial venality and such venality does not cost extra lives as a result of weak financial governance. The COVID-19 pandemic catalysed substantial risks of exploitation as huge funds are committed and many corruption preventive and enforcements measures sidestepped due to the emergency nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of these constitute a breach of rule of law, which undermines th