No I have not been through a real audit, just case studies in an auditing class.
I'm not sure exactly how it would work in this situation because of it being in a foreign country. I would not think the original documents would be let go, but what they are looking for is verification that the documents are legitimate. If it's from the organization that issued the document they should have some way of proving that the copies they are sending are of the originals (if the auditors even accept this method). By making the copies and then having them signed in pen ink or have an official stamping of some kind that verifies where it came from. So they may not need the originals but do need verification from the originals with 100% accuracy. How they choose to verify it i'm not sure, but the auditors have to be completely sure of the legitimacy, as they will not give an give a clean opinion unless they are satisfied.
I would think SNEY should also have their own original documents they recieved. The auditors could be looking only for verification that the documents sney possesses are in fact legitimate.
I would not be suprised if the the auditing firm had to send agents to Sierra Leone to investigate their operations and/or inspect the documents in questions with their own eyes. This would surely satisfy them to authenticity of the documents and accuracy of other issues in question.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
