A business association and a party chairman reacted to the filing of a lawsuit from a local activist against legislators that approved a contract to install a controversial new solar plant.

Mexicali’s Entrepreneurial Confederation Chairman Octavio Sandoval accused lawmakers that voted for the project during the last session for exempting readings and missing from sharing the bill among other colleagues.

The solar plant, that was supposed to become the largest in Latin America, was expected to provide energy to the Tijuana aqueduct.

Although the project never came to fruition due to lack of federal permits the contract with solar plant owner Next Energy provisions included in the contract allowed the company to obtain millions every month from the state.

The contract allowed the company to get close to a fifth of yearly federal funds disbursed to the state of Baja California for the next three decades.

Sandoval said lawmakers violated the Budget Act as the solar plant project would first have included a feasibility study, as well as all permits approved.

Days ago, Armando Salinas, with the Artículo 39 nonprofit organization filed a criminal lawsuit against the 16 lawmakers that voted for the project, including Speaker Juan Manuel Molina.

National Action Party State Chair Mario Osuna filed an impeachment request against 16 lawmakers that approved the solar plant project introduced during the administration of now former Governor Jaime Bonilla.

The impeachment petition will now be studied by many of those lawmakers included in the petition.

The state also filed weeks ago a complaint against seven former state officials whose names were not disclosed by Secretary of the Treasury Marco Moreno.