Workflow Comment Log Permissions Module Proposal

We have a web site, http://articulation.statecenter.com that makes heavy use of the Workflow module. We have various user roles that have permissions to move nodes from various states in our workflow process. Workflow provides a simple comment form for these transitions and our users love that feature. Here is the rub. We have a monitor user role whose job it is to monitor the progress of these nodes. The good users of this role would like to be able to enter comments in the workflow log as well. Example, a monitor made a call to another user and would like to log that in the workflow log comments for the node they discussed. If the monitor role does not have permissions to make a transition then they can't post a comment. Users that have permissions to make transitions can make a comment without changing the workflow state. I would like to give certain roles the ability to make workflow comments without giving them permission to change the workflow state of a node. Essentially this is just a new permission for workflow module.

Needed functionality:
Allow users that have workflow tab permissions to also submit comments in the workflow log. These users should not be able to make a transition, only a comment in the workflow log.

Unless I am missing something, this functionality does not exist in any current contrib module. If you would like to work on this functionality with me I will be hosting the code on github.com and I will contribute it to drupal.org once it is working.