diff --git a/src/pio_util.c b/src/pio_util.c
index 16f88701a9ca49423ea01741db7df14a5524b576..07ae4dd385c33e4829e9a2aced5465f1f5af474e 100644
--- a/src/pio_util.c
+++ b/src/pio_util.c
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ void pcdiXMPI(int iret, const char *filename, int line)
           "errorString: \"%s\"\n",
           rank, filename, line,
           errorString[0], errorString[1]);
-  MPI_Abort(MPI_COMM_WORLD, iret);
+  MPI_Abort(MPI_COMM_WORLD, 1);
 }
 
 /*****************************************************************************/