diff --git a/britney2/policies/policy.py b/britney2/policies/policy.py
index 5027a91..8ed4917 100644
--- a/britney2/policies/policy.py
+++ b/britney2/policies/policy.py
@@ -655,6 +655,11 @@ class RCBugPolicy(BasePolicy):
         name and the value is the list of open RC bugs for it.
         """
         bugs = {}
+
+        if not os.path.exists(filename):
+            self.logger.info("%s missing; skipping bug-based processing" % filename)
+            return bugs
+
         self.logger.info("Loading RC bugs data from %s", filename)
         for line in open(filename, encoding='ascii'):
             ln = line.split()