I noticed and contacted my 'team lead' and seems that our 'manager' was fooling around on that server. The application 'Oracle Discoverer 3i' has been set up on the system. I have never seen this application before. I know I have made database connections in the past (when I knew the machine was clean without all other applications) with perl on this same server, but now with this error and seeing this "Discoverer" application, could this possibly cause the error?
Just thinking out loud...