Gaborone — Just when the Attorney General Chambers' office received accolades for publishing the country's laws on the Internet, access to the site is restricted.

Touhid Ali, Information Technology (IT) manager at the AGC told Echo that opening the website to the public a couple of weeks ago was a mistake.

'The website was never meant to be open to the public until such time that Government Printing and Publishing, together with the AGC, come to a decision,' he said.

However, before the restriction of access to the website, online users could access all the 16 volumes of the Botswana laws. With the restriction in place, only government departments can access the laws at www.laws.gov.bw <http://www.laws.gov.bw/> .

'We receive many calls at our office [from people who want to access] our laws. That is why the website was introduced - to ease the congestion of demand for copies of the volumes. Even though they are not yet available to the public we are aware that laws should be accessible to the public,' Ali said.

He added that plans are underway to put out a tender to identify a company that will be tasked to construct a website to open to the public. That will be done in the next seven to eight months.