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UPPCC Agency Certification & Sterling Awards

Through its Agency Certification Award program, the Universal Public Procurement Certification Council (UPPCC) identifies organizations that have earned the distinguished and unique honor of achieving and/or maintaining a high percentage of staff that are UPPCC Certified. This program was developed to recognize those organizations that have made a concerted effort to achieve procurement excellence.

To qualify for and achieve the UPPCC Agency Certification Award, a minimum of 75% of the agency’s qualifying procurement department staff must be UPPCC certified.


The UPPCC Agency Certification Award is an annual recognition for which qualifying agencies must apply every year for consideration. The Sterling Agency Award, is an advanced level of recognition reserved for those agencies that apply for and achieve UPPCC Agency Certification Award recognition for three consecutive years.

Application Process

The application for UPPCC Agency Certification is available on a continuous basis allowing agencies to apply at any time during a given calendar year for recognition. Agencies must apply during the calendar year and prior to December 31 in order to receive recognition for that year. 

Online Agency Certification Award Application

Agency Certification Award

Agency Certification Graphic

Recognition is valid only for the current calendar year in which the agency applies regardless of the month during the year in which the application was received by the UPPCC. The agency must reapply for recognition in each subsequent calendar year to maintain their UPPCC Agency Certified status.

The maintenance of the Certified status is important for those agencies pursuing the Sterling Agency Award. Recognition for UPPCC Agency Certification is in the form of a framed certificate bearing the agency's name and the calendar year in which the recognition was earned.

Sterling Agency Awards

Sterling Award Graphic

An agency must submit an application and receive Agency Certification Award recognition from the UPPCC for three consecutive years to be eligible for the Sterling Agency Award. On the third consecutive year that the agency is recognized, UPPCC will automatically issue the Sterling Agency Award. There is no additional application to complete for Sterling Agency. The UPPCC issues the Sterling Agency Award to individual agencies based on historical records of previous applications and awards.

For example, an agency receiving the Sterling Agency Award in 2019 would have applied and received confirmation of earning the Agency Certification Award in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The agency will automatically be issued UPPCC's most prestigious agency recognition award, the Sterling Agency Award in addition to the UPPCC Agency Certification Award during the calendar year in which the agency files their third consecutive UPPCC Agency Certification Award application and receives recognition by the UPPCC.