It also threatened to lodge a report on the matter with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) if it failed to get a satisfactory explanation.

The secretariat’s secretary Razeef Rakimin, in a statement, said the party was shocked by the earlier announcement by Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam that the government would distribute 500 ambulances from an allocation of RM400 million to hospitals and health clinics.

He said going by the allocation, the cost of each ambulance would be RM800,000, the same as a luxury car such as a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Maserati.

He said in 2014, the government allocated RM18 million to buy 90 ambulances, which came to RM200,000 per ambulance.

“It’s unthinkable how the cost of an ambulance could now increase by four times. The cost of one is less than RM150,000.”

He said after much prodding, the secretary-general to the health ministry later issued a statement that the actual allocation was RM225.2 million, or RM450,400 per ambulance.

The question now, Razeef said, was whether the new cost was given just to calm the people down.

“The people are fed up with the government’s conflicting statements.

“Pro-government quarters condemn us saying we spread fake news but the information we obtained was from pro-government media such as www.bnbbc.my, Sinar Harian, Harian Metro and Bernama.”