diff --git a/src/symba/symba_frag_pos.f90 b/src/symba/symba_frag_pos.f90
index 9b61636b0..23f1e7eb7 100644
--- a/src/symba/symba_frag_pos.f90
+++ b/src/symba/symba_frag_pos.f90
@@ -730,11 +730,7 @@ function ke_objective_function(v_r_mag, v_r_unit, v_t_mag, v_t_unit, m_frag, vco
          fval = fval + 0.5_DP * m_frag(i) * dot_product(v_shift(:, i), v_shift(:, i))
       end do
       ! The following ensures that fval = 0 is a local minimum, which is what the BFGS method is searching for
-      if (fval < 0.0_DP) then
-         fval = fval**2 
-      else
-         fval = fval**2 
-      end if
+      fval = fval**2 
 
       return