As far as qf are concerned,the MEL book is an extract of the MEL master that is generated by the manufacturer.Not all of the Master MEL's are used by the company via consultation with CASA.It is true when applying a MEL the LAME should make the flight crew aware of the restrictions that may occur .In all my many years with the company ive seen a few pilots refuse to accept the MEL and in some cases they were asked to phone ops and in other cases the a/c failed to depart.Overall it is a system that has worked fine until recently we have noticed that maint watch have been telling flight crews over the phone how to carry out maint procedures that must be addressed by a licenced engineer specific to the trade cat.You may ask how this has been carried out ,well the answer is by the abuse of using an ATP.
Also main watch have also given flight crews the licence to reset tripped circuit breakers which as we all know is a bit of a no no.Its a worrying trend.
Manually dripping fuel tanks is another area that has been bastardised by qf maint watch.We had one incident in the west recently where a brave flight crew member dripped a wing ,but inadvertantly left the stick unlocked.It was picked up during the next pre flight.
These instances are both worrying and trending in the upward direction.