Sounds to me like you have SetOption("explicit","ON") in the script.
Quote:
SETOPTION
Action
SetOption can be used to configure certain options of the KiXtart script engine.
Syntax
SETOPTION("option", "value")
Parameters
Option
Option to set.
Value
Value for the option.
The options and possible values are described in the following table:
ASCII ON, OFF Default console output is in Unicode. Setting the ASCII option to ON changes the output to ASCII, so you can output extended characters, such as line characters.
CaseSensitivity ON, OFF By default, all string comparisons are case-insensitive. Setting the CaseSensitivity option to ON configures KiXtart to make string comparisons case-sensitive.
DisableDebugging ON Disables debugging (effectively disables the DEBUG ON command). Note that debugging can not be re-enabled.
Explicit ON, OFF When you enable the Explicit option, you must explicitly declare all variables using the Dim, Global, or ReDim statements. If you attempt to use an undeclared variable name, an error occurs.
Use the Explicit option to avoid incorrectly typing the name of an existing variable.