Jefferson Waterman International (DC Lobbying Firm) taking Jammeh and his incompetent APRC Government for a ride

Bi- annually, Le Big Blog will be bringing you a bi-annual report of all the lobbying activities U.S firms are engaged in on the behalf of The Republic of The Gambia.  These reports are all public knowledge and available through fara.gov.

FARA: The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is an act of the US Congress to make detailed reporting of U.S Firms and their foreign clients available to the public with the hope that by disclosing their client list and providing a detailed report of their activities on the behalf of their clients, U.S firms will shy away from representing useless governments like the one we have back home. 

Of course, congress' strategy has not been as effective as they hoped simply because firms like J.W.I and The B.G.R group also known in Washington, DC as "DESPOTS R US" do not mix any of their business dealings with ethics.  

Jackson McDonald
Some will say they don't blame J.W.I trying to make money off Gambia because the primary reason to establish a business is to make money. I agree, but my issue is with their current CEO, Jackson McDonald, who was once the American Ambassador in Gambia.  As the old saying goes, Jackson McDonald ought to know better. While some on K-Street can argue and blame their greed on simply doing business or even blame ignorance when caught with their pants down, the same cannot be said for Amb. McDonald.  He spent years in Gambia authoring Jammeh's gross Human Rights abuses for the State Department, and as America's former top guy in The Gambia, Jackson McDonald is much more in-sync with the daily hardships of Gambians than most on this side of the Atlantic; thus making his attempt to extort Gambians (by entering in a $4million contract with Jammeh) unacceptable.    

Anyway, Mr. McDonald will just have to deal with me updating his Wikipedia page. I've updated it 4x since January and either him or someone who deeply cares about his reputation deleted my updates every single time. Thank God the internet is an open forum, so I'll keep the delete button on his keyboard active for a long time. 

The Contract
On the positive side, FARA is here to stay and it is our responsibility as Gambians to make sure that we are helping FARA accomplish exactly what it intends to accomplish for the benefit of our country.  

Governments come and go, but the people stay to pay the bills useless governments incurred on their behalf. In this case, J.W.I has not done any of the job Jammeh hired them to do.  They are grossly overcharging Gambians and not delivering. So far, we've paid them $800, 000.00 and the only thing we have to show for is a godaddy website that cost nothing more than $100.00. If you are going to be generous and add labor cost for the website developer, it shouldn't amount to anything more than $500.00. In fact, I've seen way more sophisticated websites built for only $40.00.  Just take a look at their nonsense website and tell me if it's worth the $22,000.00 they are charging Gambians. 

The Bi Annual Report
Below is Gambia's first bi-annual report from Jefferson Waterman International.  I've gone through it with a fine-tooth comb and extracted what I think is relevant to Gambians. I compared Gambia and Ivory Coast (another client of J.W.I) to highlight that J.W.I are indeed taking Jammeh for a ride. The comparison takes into account the first 6 months of activities taken on the behalf of both countries after contract was signed.  

	Gambia	Cote D’Ivoire
GDP Per Capita	$ 505.76	$1,194.56
Website	www.thegambianway.com	www.onwardtogether.org
Facebook	None	www.facebook.com/onwardtogether
Twitter	None	www.twitter.com/onwardtogether
$ Received during reporting period	$800,000.00	$0.00
Out of Pocket Expenses Reimbursement	Travel: $58,611.55 Meals: $856.07 Media Research: $0.00 Website Dev.: $21,732.95 FARA: $305 Total: $81,505.12	Travel: $304.77 Meals: 523.80 Media Research: $85.24 Website Dev.: 3,148.50 FARA: $305.00 Total: $23.662.31
Activities Performed on behalf of foreign principle	Created a Website for The Republic of Gambia L Firm performed no other activities on the behalf of the Republic of The Gambia	ü  Reporting orally and writing on all administration actions of concern or interest – 30 parties contacted   ü  Assist in setting up meeting between ivory Coast and U.S Government Officials and member of the private sector    ü  Assist in coordination of Cote D’Ivoire’s participation in academic community events   ü  Maintained online English Language resources & Social media campaigns on the behalf of Cote D’Ivoire   ü  Arranged press interviews for ivory Coast government officials   ü  Assisted in the development of policy reforms that improve governance, economic freedom and social investments to improve country’s scores on the Millennium Challenge Corporation indicators   ü  Assisted the foreign principal in obtaining access to MCC and other U.S Government departments and individuals to inform them of country’s reform efforts ü  Website Creation