In singling out Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Zahid said the Bersatu information chief represented the “spin cluster”, in an apparent riposte to Wan Saiful’s labelling of detractors of the KWAN issue as “kluster merungut” or “grumbling cluster”.

Zahid criticised Wan Saiful for trying to blame ministers from Umno over Putrajaya’s decision to use money from the trust fund to purchase vaccines.

In a statement last week, Wan Saiful had said that certain big wigs from Umno were “too busy” looking for matters to complain about that they forgot that the health minister and minister overseeing the national vaccination exercise were from Umno.

He was referring to health minister Dr Adham Baba and science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said Umno had failed to discuss the matter internally as they were “too keen to show how clever” they were.

Zahid, however, asked what authority Umno had to determine the direction of the Perikatan Nasional-led government.

“And is the prime minister or the finance minister from Umno?” he asked.

He also criticised Wan Saiful for comparing KWAN to the Employees Provident Fund, saying the EPF “belonged” to the people who would make withdrawals during difficult times.

“And even then, it is not easy to get government approval.”

Last week, the government passed an emergency ordinance which amended the National Trust Fund Act 1988 to allow the fund to be used for the procurement of vaccines and related expenditure.

The fund reportedly has RM16.9 billion in assets as at the end of 2017.

Yesterday, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the government would only take RM5 billion from KWAN for Covid-19 vaccine procurement, adding that this included the RM3 billion for vaccine purchase first announced in his 2021 annual budget speech.