By Maheesha Mudugamuwa The Government has threatened to blacklist private power producers (PPPs) if any irregularities are found in deals they had with the former Government. Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told The Sunday Morning that an investigation will be conducted into emergency power purchase agreements reached between the private electricity suppliers and the former Government. The Minister has called for an investigation into financial transactions between the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the private power producers following a meeting held on Thursday (26) between the Minister and the Ministry Secretary. The Minister had instructed his officials to conduct an investigation into the transactions of the private companies to see whether any misappropriation of funds had taken place. He had also stated that an investigation into the assets of the top officials of the CEB would be conducted in the future to further ascertain the allegations of corruption on a request made by the trade unions. According to official sources, it has come to light that several top officials of the CEB have become excessively wealthy in recent years – the same period the Government had been compelled to procure emergency power. Sources said that since 2011, the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority had proposed over 700 wind and solar power projects which had received approval from the Cabinet of Ministers, the Attorney General’s Department, and the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) but it was never implemented by the CEB. The Sunday Morning learnt that several officials who had already left the Ministry or the CEB would also be included in the investigations.