I wish to share the experience we QMS consultants have in India and request others' views.. The third party certification agencies for a long time have been doing the training and informally even consulting which had impacted on the revenue of QMS consultants. They have of late been adopting pressure tactics to dictate to companies whom they should employ as a consultant by questioning the competence of consultants who are already on board.. ISO 9001 is a public propoerty and it is not a proprietary document to Certification agencies. In addition, consultants perform the role of bringing in domain knowledge and experience in implementing the requirements..This role needs protection as otherwise we will have a monopoly of certification agencies driving what is good for the Industry. will it not be a good idea to have ASQ to interact with National accreditation agencies to prevent such unethical practices by evolving a code of conduct which will discourage auditors to interfere in the process of either employment of consultants or iin their performing advisory role in a company? Consulting and auditing could be complementary to each other provide we respect each other professionally.