At the time of writing, Bernama’s latest figures from six flood-hit states — Pahang, Johor, Selangor, Kelantan, Perak and Terengganu — stand at a staggering 224,980 evacuees.

According to the NSC’s 5pm update, however, the latest number of evacuees from five states, excluding Selangor, is just 101,033.

When contacted, both agencies defended their statistics to Malay Mail Online, insisting their figures were accurate and timely.

An official from the National Disaster Command Centre under the NSC told the Malay Mail Online that the council gathers the numbers from its state branches in the flood-affected areas and has only been liaising with its own authorities.

The centre is the main body tasked with overseeing the flood situation in the country.

“Our numbers are accurate and we have only been in touch with our state officials in gathering and updating the numbers regularly.

“We only revert to them (state NSC officers) for the official statistics. We have absolutely no idea on where and how Bernama gets its numbers from but what we can assure is that ours is accurate, so please check Portal Bencana for updates,” Corporal Mohd Hafikri Saidi said when contacted.

He said that the NSC also updates the flood statistics in the portal every two or four hours once.

A Bernama official who declined to be named shot down the NSC’s numbers, alleging that the council was “slow” in updating its statistics.

“We do not rely on NSC’s numbers. Yes, we are aware that the numbers are very much different but our bureaus in the flood affected states have been liaising with the state welfare departments directly involved in the evacuation mission there, so we are going with that,” the official said, adding that Bernama is also liaising with other government agencies involved in the mission.

“NSC just gathers data while the agencies we rely on are those who are on the ground themselves,” he further said.