diff --git a/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh b/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh
index 7450fb090e25d7be3c05741344f0650b167baf80..c2c1ff8b26b7c029bed82c14de99477e13eaf4f8 100644
--- a/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh
+++ b/workflow/scripts/bdbag_fetch.sh
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 bdbag --materialize ${1} --debug
 validateError=true
 bdbag --validate full ${1} && validateError=false
-if [ validateError ]
+if [ ${validateError} ]
 then
     n=0
     until [ "${n}" -ge "3" ]
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ then
         sleep 15
     done
 fi
-if [ validateError ]
+if [ ${validateError} ]
 then
     exit 1
 fi