I think that you want system instead of exec. Note that exec will never return. (see both entries in perlfunc). Or you might want to just fork the other program off... Also check out the Q&A section under QandASection: programs and processes

also, chiefdaemon.cgi sounds like it might be better suited as a cronjob (or set of cronjobs) .. do you have crontab access? And also, why is a cgi program doing cron'd ("timed loop") stuff (as opposed to a standalone script, perhaps w/shared code)?