Step 1 - Find out the user name and group that the web server is running under.

ps -ef | grep httpd
# this will show you the user id of the web server
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Step 2 - Find out the permission of the directories and files you are trying to read from and write to.

ls -al /my/path
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Step 3 - Change the group of your directory and files to the httpd user group, and set group read/execute permission on the directories and files.

# httpd group (you can find out from the /etc/password
# and /etc/group files
chgrp -R httpd /my/path
chmod -R g+rx /my/path
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Step 4 - Well, test again.

su - httpd
# set uid to httpd user, assuming that you are the
# root user and no password is required

# run your cgi script from the command line.
# you don't need to use a browser to test the cgi script.
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By the way, you do have root access to the system, don't you?