Pound, the most senior IOC member, told the Sailing Illustrated programme last week that the true state of IFs' financial affairs is "more closely guarded than nuclear secrets".

The Canadian also urged IFs to "come clean" regarding their financial position if they are to receive support from the IOC.

Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) executive director Andrew Ryan rejected Pound's comments, claiming 25 of 31 IFs surveyed as part of its third governance review publish externally audited accounts "for all to see".

Ryan said 21 of the 28 core Summer Olympic IFs published their accounts when they conducted a governance assessment in 2018.

The Briton also claimed ASOIF was "pushing heavily for publication of audited accounts in full".

World Athletics is among the IFs which still refuses to publish its accounts, despite repeated promises that the organisation will eventually do so.

"This may have been somewhat exaggerated but, following the work on governance completed by ASOIF's governance taskforce and our members over the past four years, this perception is way out of date," Ryan told insidethegames when asked for a response to Pound's comments.

"At the time of the first International Federation governance assessment in 2017, 18 IFs published at least one set of annual independently audited accounts and there has been a steady improvement since.

"Some IFs do not publish their full audited accounts online but often a summary report. 

"We are pushing heavily for publication of audited accounts in full and that is the only way to get full points in the ASOIF governance assessment in that area."

Ryan also insisted IFs' dependence on Olympic revenue that they receive from the IOC had "fallen dramatically in the vast majority of cases since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, when the average, excluding FIFA, was 45 per cent".

He said the average dependence was down to 33 per cent following Rio 2016, where the IOC distributed $540 million (£441 million/€492 million) to Federations using its tiered system. 

Of the 28 full ASOIF member IFs who share in the revenues, there are 15 with less than a 25 per cent dependence and four more with less than 50 per cent, Ryan added.

Of the remaining nine there are only three with a dependence greater than 75 per cent.

"ASOIF itself is mandated by its General Assembly to maintain operational reserves to cover four years, aimed at just such a crisis as the current situation," Ryan added.

"It should be noted that many of the IFs have followed a similar policy, holding assets which will help to get them through the current challenges."