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The paper uses a standard principal agent model to study the merits of separating operational responsibilities and performance reporting. The two tasks are either allocated jointly to one agent or a second agent is hired and tasks are separated. In the latter case, one agent undertakes operational tasks and one agent reports on performance. A joint task allocation is optimal if the reservation wage of the monitoring agent is high or if the substitution between exogenous productivity and effort is low. The value of separating tasks increases with the agents' ability to divert resources to personal consumption and with the probability of realizing a high productivity. Under constant absolute risk aversion, the value of separating tasks increases in the monitoring agent's ability to observe the realized productivity and in her risk aversion. Finally, the value of separating tasks decreases if the two agents collude, but it may still have value.