diff --git a/modules/util/Util/Monitoring.pm b/modules/util/Util/Monitoring.pm
index be4e2e427295a2198f7d0dfac06daf5555587df6..3024d6463a285edfd32f543f3c3e97986bcdaafd 100644
--- a/modules/util/Util/Monitoring.pm
+++ b/modules/util/Util/Monitoring.pm
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ sub read_config
   # print "mon_cfg: ", Dumper ($mon_cfg);
 
   $obj->{mon_cfg}= $mon_cfg;
+  return 0 unless (defined ($mon_cfg));
   $obj->{cfg_fnm}= $cfg_fnm;
   # TODO: add mtime for update to work...