Hello mf_galberico,
A few questions for you:
1. What are the permissions on your file /swlocal/microfocus/cobol/etc/cobver, as revealed by using "ls -l"?
2. Do you have any special security in place?
3. Anything unusual about the location where the product is installed?
4. Is the execution running with any special permissions?
5. If you (as an experiment) try running the same program as root, do you get the same error?