diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 0bfbd1dd8..d9068e07b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ the compiler reports it as "possibly unused".
    (<https://bugs.gnu.org/55356>)
 ** 'read-u8' in (scheme base) now defaults to (current-input-port)
    (<https://bugs.gnu.org/62690>)
+** 'ftw' now correctly deals with directory permissions
+   (<https://bugs.gnu.org/55344>)
 ** Hashing of UTF-8 symbols with non-ASCII characters avoids corruption
    (<https://bugs.gnu.org/56413>)
 
diff --git a/module/ice-9/ftw.scm b/module/ice-9/ftw.scm
index ac6aa6316..8496086a1 100644
--- a/module/ice-9/ftw.scm
+++ b/module/ice-9/ftw.scm
@@ -201,12 +201,12 @@
 
 (define-macro (getuid-or-false)
   (if (defined? 'getuid)
-      (getuid)
+      '(getuid)
       #f))
 
 (define-macro (getgid-or-false)
   (if (defined? 'getgid)
-      (getgid)
+      '(getgid)
       #f))
 
 (define (directory-files dir)