I have been having the same issue and found one way to work around the problem (in reports at least). I changed the SQL in the TOracleDataSet component so that I cast the offending column into the correct datatype. After changing the SQL I deleted the field from the Fields collection and then added it back in. The format for the Cast I used is as follows:

Select CAST(quarter as integer) quarter,
fiscal_year_execution,
...
from myTable
Where blah blah blah

You can use float instead of integer or any other datatype (such as varchar2(x)).

Hope this helps

Rick Anderson